
Sources say Manoj Tiwari had offered to resign immediately after the Delhi defeat (File)
Actor-politician Manoj Tiwari has been replaced as chief of the BJP in Delhi. Adesh Kumar Gupta will take over, the ruling party said today.
Adesh Gupta is a former North Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor.
Manoj Tiwari, who was appointed Delhi BJP president in 2016, was said to be on borrowed time since the party's disastrous performance in the Delhi assembly election in February.
Sources say he had offered to resign immediately after the Delhi defeat but was asked to continue until an alternative was found.
The BJP called it a routine move and also announced changes in other states -- Vishnu Deo Sai has been appointed chief in Chhattisgarh and S Tikendra Singh in Manipur.
Mr Tiwari, a popular singer-actor from Bhojpuri films, was seen to have been unable to effectively counter the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) despite his street-fighting skills and non-stop sparring.
A flamboyant politician prone to theatrics, Mr Tiwari failed to deliver on his promise of decimating AAP even after the BJP won all seven parliamentary seats in the national election just nine months before the Delhi polls.
In an internal autopsy of the Delhi election, the BJP blamed infighting and the failure to match AAP's narrative on local issues like water and electricity.
Mr Tiwari has also been a draw for controversies in recent months. Recently, he was targeted by AAP and others on social media over photos in which he appeared to be playing cricket at an academy in neighbouring Haryana in violation of lockdown rules.