Gadkari replaces Munde as Maharashtra BJP chief

BJP's poor performance in the Maharasthra assembly elections claimed its first victim on Thursday.

Party president L K Advani has replaced Gopinath Munde with Nitin Gadkari as state unit chief. Gadkari is the leader of the opposition in the state legislative council.

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Munde, who had been deputy chief minister during the BJP-Shiv Sena rule, had been elected to state presidentship a few months ahead of the assembly polls. He is brother-in-law of party general secretary Pramod Mahajan.

Gadkari is from Vidarbha while Munde hails from Marathwada.

The party also appointed Jagdish Shettar as Karnataka unit president, replacing S Ananth Kumar, who has been made national general secretary, party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters in New Delhi.

The party appointed Bosaram Seeran as the Arunachal Pradesh state unit president.

Meanwhile, senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Arun Gujrathi was on Thursday unanimously elected new chief of Maharashtra unit of the party.

Gujrathi's name was suggested by Ankush Tope and seconded by Anil Deshmukh and others at the party's general body meeting in New Delhi. He replaces R R Patil, who resigned from the post he held for over 19 months.

In Chhatisgarh, tribal leader Shiv Pratap Singh has been elected as the new president of the BJP. He will succeed Nand Kumar Sai. Singh, who is a senior MLA from the Surajpur constituency in the state's Surguja district, enjoys cabinet minister status.