Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta on Sunday resigned from the post, days after the party's defeat in the municipal corporation polls to the Aam Aadmi Party .
The BJP's Delhi unit vice-president Virendra Sachdeva has been appointed as the acting president.
"The resignation of Adesh Gupta as Delhi BJP president has been accepted as per the direction of BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda. Delhi unit vice- president Virendra Sachdeva is being appointed working state unit chief till the next order," BJP's national general secretary Arun Singh said in a communication.
Soon after taking over charge as acting president at the Delhi BJP office , Sachdeva exhorted party workers to start working for a victory of the party on Delhi's all the seven Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections.
"I am grateful to the party's central leadership for giving this responsibility to an ordinary worker like me. It's a responsibility that I will discharge taking together all the party leaders and workers," Sachdeva told reporters.
Gupta in a tweet welcomed Sachdeva on his appointment as working president of Delhi BJP.
"Hearty congratulations to my friend and old colleague Virendra Sachdeva on being appointed as working president of Delhi BJP," Gupta tweeted.
Delhi BJP under Gupta's leadership managed to put up a spirited fight against AAP, and win 104 out of 250 wards in Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls.
Gupta told reporters that he took "moral responsibility" for party's defeat and decided to step down from Delhi BJP president post.
The AAP won 134 wards in the polls and ended BJP's 15-year rule at the civic body.
Sachdeva, who was associated with RSS earlier as a volunteer, discharged duties on various posts in the Delhi BJP, including district president of Chandni Chowk and Mayur Vihar.
Appointment of Sachdeva, whose ancestors came to India from Pakistan after partition, temporarily rested speculations over Gupta's exit and claims on his post by several party leaders.
"The party may decide to continue with Sachdeva as the president if his performance as working president is impressive," said a senior Delhi BJP functionary.
Several leaders were set to be in the race for the post, including MPs Parvesh Verma, Ramesh Bidhuri, Meenakshi Lekhi and Gautam Gambhir, party's co-incharge for Jammu and Kashmir Ashish Sood, Kapil Mishra and state general secretary Harsh Malhotra.
The demand for an organisational overhaul in the Delhi BJP had begun immediately after the party's loss in the MCD elections.
Amid the clamour for change, Gupta had in a meeting on the result day (Thursday) asserted he was not going to give up to "conspiracies" against him.
Gupta's performance has been under the scanner since he took charge as president of the Delhi BJP in June 2020. Under his leadership, the party failed to win bypolls to some MCD wards in 2021 as well as the Rajender Nagar Assembly bypoll.
According to some Delhi BJP functionaries, Gupta's resignation does not mean much as he was anyway nearing the end of his term.
The organisational elections of the BJP at the national level are scheduled to be complete in January 2023.
BJP leaders said the party constitution mandates that organisational restructuring should be done in 50 per cent of state units ahead of changes at national level.
