Amit Shah appoints Sreedharan Pillai Kerala BJP chief; Sunil Deodhar made Andhra Pradesh co-in-charge

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah Monday appointed PS Sreedharan Pillai as the party’s Kerala chief and elevated Sunil Deodhar, credited for playing an important role in its massive win in Tripura polls, as national secretary. Deodhar, who was the party’s in-charge for Tripura, has been made co-incharge for Andhra Pradesh, where the Lok Sabha and assembly elections are scheduled to be held together in 2019, according to a party statement. [caption id=“attachment_4790461” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP president Amit Shah. PTI[/caption] The party appointed former Scheduled Castes ‘morcha’ head Dushyant Kumar Gautam as vice president in the organisation, the statement said, adding Y Satya Kumar as national secretary. In other appointments, Shah made former Kerala BJP chief and Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan as Andhra in-charge. Pillai will replace Kummanam Rajasekharan, who was appointed by the Union government as Mizoram governor in May after he was seen to be unable to take all party factions together in a state where Shah has nursed high hopes. While Rajasekharan was seen as a Hindutva hardliner, Pillai, also a former state party president, is considered a moderate and somebody who can unite the party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.