Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, BJP president J.P. Nadda on January 27 appointed election in-charge for 23 States and Union Territories, with party vice-president Baijayant Panda being given the charge of Uttar Pradesh and general secretary Vinod Tawde retaining the position in Bihar, where the party appears to be on track to form the government again.
Mr. Tawde will have Rajya Sabha MP and former Jharkhand unit chief Deepak Prakash as co-in-charge. Among other appointments, Arvind Menon will be in charge of Tamil Nadu, while in Karnataka, Radha Mohan Das Agarwal will take over from general secretary Arun Singh. National general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam has been given the charge of Uttarakhand.
Former Bihar Minister and BJP’s in-charge for West Bengal, Mangal Pandey, has been appointed the election in-charge for the State. BJP leaders Amit Malviya and Asha Lakra will be the co-in-charges. The BJP has appointed former Uttar Pradesh Minister Shrikant Sharma as the election in-charge for Himachal Pradesh. Sanjay Tondon will be the co-in-charge.
No appointments for Maharashtra
No appointments have been announced for the crucial State of Maharashtra, with BJP sources saying that these might be done later. Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has been made the election in-charge for Kerala, while BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb will be the election in-charge for Haryana.
Mr. Nadda has appointed Mahendra Singh, an MLC in Uttar Pradesh who has been a State minister in the past, as the BJP’s election in-charge for Madhya Pradesh. Delhi BJP leader Satish Upadhyay will be the co-in-charge for Madhya Pradesh.
Former Gujarat Chief Minister and the BJP’s in-charge for Punjab, Vijay Rupani, has been appointed the election in-charge for the State, with additional charge of Chandigarh.
The BJP co-in-charge for political affairs in Jammu and Kashmir, Ashish Sood, has been appointed the election in-charge for Goa. Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi has been made the election in-charge for Daman and Diu, with Dushyant Patel as co-in-charge.
Party leader Ashok Singhal has been appointed the election in-charge for Arunachal Pradesh. Y. Satya Kumar, a BJP national secretary and in-charge for political affairs in Andaman and Nicobar, has been made the election in-charge for the Union Territory.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh, who is the party’s in-charge for political affairs in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, has been named the election in-charge for both Union Territories.
Vijaypal Singh Tomar, the party’s Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, has been made the in-charge for elections in Odisha, while Chhattisgarh MLA Lata Usendi will be the co-in-charge.
The BJP’s in-charge for political affairs in Puducherry, Nirmala Kumar Surana, has been given the charge of elections as well. Bihar BJP MLC Dilip Jaiswal has been appointed the party’s election in-charge for Sikkim.
