Aditya Sahu set to take over as Jharkhand BJP president

Rajya Sabha member Aditya Sahu is set to become the new president of the Jharkhand unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he was the only candidate to file a nomination on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) for the post.

Mr. Sahu will replace Babulal Marandi, who is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly. Union Minister and State Election Officer Jual Oram was in Ranchi on the instructions of the central leadership to conduct the nomination process.

He was accompanied by Mr. Marandi, Organisation General Secretary Karmveer Singh and State Election Officer Dr. Pradeep Verma. Mr. Oram said that one nomination paper for the State president and 21 for the National Council members had been received.

Mr. Sahu’s proposers included Mr. Marandi, former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, Union Minister Annapurna Devi, State vice-presidents Rakesh Prasad, and others.

Mr. Oram said that the names of the State president and the members of the National Council would be formally announced on Wednesday (January 14, 2026).

A non-tribal leader and Rajya Sabha member, Mr. Sahu comes from the Baniya caste, classified as Other Backward Class. He had earlier served as the General Secretary of the Jharkhand BJP and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in 2022.

Having a clean image, Mr. Sahu was also a professor at Ram Tahal Choudhary College in Ranchi and has been associated with the BJP for the last two decades. He is also considered a close associate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Mr. Sahu is currently the working president of the Jharkhand BJP.

Of the 81 Assembly seats, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha led INDIA bloc won 56 seats in the 2024 Assembly election, while the National Democratic Alliance secured 24 seats, fewer than its tally in the 2019 Assembly election. The BJP, under the leadership of Mr. Marandi, won 21 seats.