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Updated: Jul 15, 2019 00:27 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday appointed BL Santhosh, a leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, as its new organisational secretary.

A communiqué, issued by BJP general secretary Arun Singh, said, “BJP National President Amit Shah has appointed B L Santhosh, Joint General Secretary Organisation, as National General Secretary Organisation of the party. The appointment comes into immediate effect.”

The communiqué has come a day after 66-year-old Ram Lal, who served the party as the organizational secretary for 13 years, was divested of the charge and sent back to the RSS. Santosh is 52. The post of the BJP’s organizational secretary is reserved for pracharaks of the RSS,ideological parent of the BJP, and they are responsible for the coordination between different state units besides organisational matters such as execution of party programmes.

Santhosh is a senior RSS leader from Karnataka. He served as the organisational secretary of the BJP in the southern state before he was promoted as one of the four deputies to Ram Lal in 2014. He became a pracharak of the RSS in 1993.

As joint general secretary of the BJP, Santhosh is reported to have played a role in the recent defection of 10 Congress legislators to the BJP. “Santhosh has a sharp political mind and played a key role in bringing the BJP to power in Karnataka,” a BJP leader said on the condition of anonymity.