New Delhi: BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda was given the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh, as the BJP Sunday appointed election incharges and co-incharges for various states and Union Territories ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The notable entrants to the list include general secretary Radha Mohan Agrawal as the Lok Sabha poll incharge of Karnataka, former Uttar Pradesh minister Shrikant Sharma as Himachal incharge, and vice-president Lata Usendi as co incharge of Odisha.
Mahendra Singh, who was incharge of Assam five years ago, was given the responsibility of another important state of Madhya Pradesh this year. Singh, a BJP MLC of Uttar Pradesh, was one of the BJP functinaries credited with the good results in the Northeast state in 2019. Madhya Pradesh state in-charge Murlidhar Rao has already asked the BJP brass to relieve him to concentrate for the Lok Sabha election.
Panda was looking after Assam and Delhi as incharge earlier before he was given the responsibility of India’s politically most important state as the election in-charge.
In 2019, the BJP has deputed Govardhan Jhadapia, a powerful minister during the Modi years in Gujarat, as the poll incharge with Narrotam Mishra and Dushyant Gautam as co incharges. The BJP had also made then Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda the poll incharge in Uttar Pradesh. It went on to win 62 of the total 80 seats in UP. Five years earlier, senior leader Amit Shah as the incharge had a better strike rate of 71 seats.
“The most crucial appointment is of Uttar Pradesh where unlike 2019, the party has deputed Panda as the Lok Sabha incharge. Govardhan Jhadapia was incharge with two deputies Narrotam Mishra and Dushyant Gautam, who was a vice-president then. Since Sunil Bansal was there that time, the party easily handled the UP campaign,” a senior BJP leader told ThePrint.
The party has retained state incharge Vinod Tawde as the poll incharge in Bihar, while appointing Jharkhand former state president Deepak Prakash as co incharge.
In 2019, the BJP had swept the alliance with the LJP as it won 39 seats under senior leader Bhupendra Yadav. But, Yadav’s relationship with Nitish Kumar deteriorated after the BJP used Chirag Paswan to cut JD(U)’s vote. Bihar again is in the churn, with reports suggesting that Nitish doing may return to the BJP after separating in 2022.
Rajya Sabha MP Radha Mohan Agrawal has his task cut out in Karnataka where the Congress had trounced the BJP government last year. Shrikant Sharma is also responsible for a non-BJP state (Himachal) where he has an experienced hand in Sanjay Tandon as co incharge. Earlier, Sharma who lost ministerial berth in the Yogi 2.0 government, had been deputed as media incharge for the Rajasthan polls.
Interestingly, the party has not announced Lok Sabha poll incharge in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Delhi.
Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar was made the incharge in Kerala, while former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb would essay the role in Haryana. Deb will have Surendra Nagar as co-incharge.
Former Bihar minister Mangal Pandey was made incharge of Bengal and he will be assisted by BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya and party general secretary Asha Lakra. BJP national general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam is also incharge of Uttarakhand, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh for J&K and Ladakh, BJP MLC Dilip Jaiswal of Sikkim, Gujarat ex-chief minister Vijay Rupani for Punjab, senior leader Nirmala Kumar Surana for Puducherry among others. BJP co-in-charge for political affairs in J&K Ashish Sood was made election incharge for Goa.
Rajya Sabha MP Laxmikant Bajpai will be the election incharge for Jharkhand, Gujarat MLA Purnesh Modi will take care of Daman & Diu, and BJP national secretary Y. Satya Kumar in Andaman & Nicobar.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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