The ruling BJP Thursday announced a major overhaul with new state chiefs in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, naming Union minister Harsh Malhotra, Kewal Singh Dhillon, and Archana Gupta, respectively. Malhotra replaces Virendra Sachdeva in Delhi, while Dhillon succeeds Sunil Jakhar in Punjab. Gupta will replace Mohan Lal Badoli in Haryana. BJP national general secretary Arun Singh announced the appointments through an organisational order.
Malhotra, 62, is Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways and Corporate Affairs in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. He is a first-time Lok Sabha MP from East , who has been with the BJP organisation in Delhi for several decades, holding multiple posts.
Dhillon joined the BJP in June 2022, months after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)swept the Punjab Assembly elections by winning 92 of the 117 seats. A seasoned politician and popular industrialist from Barnala, Punjab, Dhillon had represented the constituency as a Congress MLA from 2012 to 2017 during the SAD-BJP alliance government in Punjab. He had also served as senior vice-president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, Dhillon contested from Barnala on a Congress ticket but lost to AAP’s Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer by around 2,000 votes. Two years later, he contested the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in the 2019 general election but was defeated by then AAP state president by over one lakh votes.
Prior to her elevation, Gupta served as the state general secretary of the Haryana BJP. She also previously served as the BJP district president for Panipat, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
