The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named co-in-charges and election in-charges for 23 states and Union Territories on Saturday.
NEW DELHI: Ahead of the pivotal Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named election in-charges and co-in-charges for 23 states and Union territories on Saturday. This includes Bihar, where the party hopes to regain power in coalition with the chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United).
Baijayant Panda has been named by BJP President JP Nadda as the election coordinator for Uttar Pradesh, a state that can send up to 80 legislators to the Lok Sabha. In addition to being the state head of Delhi and Assam, Panda is the national vice-president of the party and a former legislator.
The prominent politician, sometimes referred to as “Jay” Panda, left the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and joined the BJP prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Panda is expected to benefit from his assignment to supervise elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP presently holds 62 MPs. Encouraged by the opening of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the BJP hopes to gain further ground in the state against the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as well as a combination of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
Vinod Tawde, the national general secretary of the BJP, has been appointed election in-charge of Bihar, which is currently experiencing political turmoil due to Nitish Kumar’s apparent move to align with the party. Deepak Prakash, a member of the Rajya Sabha, will serve as co-in-charge, the BJP said in a statement.
Tawde, who is also in charge of political affairs for the BJP in Bihar, is one of the leaders who has played a significant role in organizing and carrying out party and election-related preparations. After the party won a landslide victory in the assembly elections in November of last year, he was recently dispatched as an observer to Rajasthan to choose the next chief minister.
Prakash Javadekar, a former Union minister, has been appointed Kerala’s election commissioner. He also oversees political matters in the state. Vijay Rupani, a former chief minister of Gujarat, has been appointed by Nadda to oversee the elections in Punjab and Chandigarh. According to the BJP announcement, party national secretary Narinder Singh would support Rupani in Punjab.
Haryana will be led by former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb, with Rajya Sabha member Surendra Singh Nagar serving as deputy chief minister. The Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) and the BJP share a coalition administration in the state, and the BJP has declared that it would fight for all 10 of the state’s seats alone.
With assistance from Sanjat Tandon, former minister of Uttar Pradesh Shrikant Sharma would be in charge of the Himachal Pradesh election preparations. Tarun Chugh, national general secretary of the BJP, has been designated as the election coordinator for the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Goa has been assigned to party leader Ashish Sood, who will also help Chugh with J&K poll preparations.
Laxmikant Bajpai, a member of the Rajya Sabha and national vice-president of the BJP, will oversee Jharkhand’s election preparations, while Y Satya Kumar, the national secretary, will be in charge of Andaman and Nicobar’s. While Purnesh Modi and Dushyant Patel would be in charge of Daman and Diu, Assam minister Ashok Singhal will be in charge of Arunachal Pradesh. MP Sudhakar Reddy and national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agarwal have been designated as the in-charge and co-in-charge of Karnataka, respectively.
The appointments of Arvind Menon, national secretary, to the positions of Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Puducherry, Sikkim, Sudhakar Reddy, Tamil Nadu, Vijaypal Singh Tomar, and Lata Usendi, and Uttarakhand, are as follows: Dushyant Kumar Gautham, national secretary, and Arvind Menon, national secretary.
In leadership of West Bengal is the BJP Additionally, Mangal Pandey has been designated as the eastern state’s election coordinator. Amit Malviya and Asha Lakra, party leaders, will share leadership responsibilities.