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Bangaru Laxman to be next BJP president

Dalit leader Bangaru Laxman will be the new Bharatiya Janata Party president. He will assume office on August 27 at the party's national council meeting in Nagpur.

Announcing this on Tuesday, party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said Laxman would be filing his nomination on Wednesday at the party headquarters in New Delhi, in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister L K Advani, party president Kushabhau Thakre and other senior party leaders.

Laxman, who is minister of state for railways, is from Hyderabad and was the consensus choice of the party leadership, Naidu said.

In keeping with the party's principle of one-man, one-post, Laxman will relinquish his ministerial post, Naidu said.

The 60-year-old Laxman will be the first BJP leader from southern India to don the mantle of party president.

He has been associated with the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh and the erstwhile Jan Sangh and he headed the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Morcha of the party.

PTI

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