BJP Names State In-Charges for All 28 States and 8 UTs; Irani, Madhav Get Key Roles
BJP appoints in-charges and co-in-charges for all 28 states and eight union territories, with key roles for Smriti Irani and Ram Madhav.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday announced in-charges and co-in-charges for all 28 states and eight Union Territories, in an organisational exercise that also reshuffled responsibilities within its communication wing.
National general secretary Smriti Irani has been given charge of Haryana and Chhattisgarh, while party vice-president Ram Madhav will oversee Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand as political affairs in-charge.
In the communication department, Anil Baluni has been elevated as coordinator, a role that covers the party's national media cell and social media unit. Ashish Usha Agrawal, recently made co-convenor of the national media department, has been promoted as its convenor — a position Baluni had held until now.
The party said all appointments made by BJP president Nitin Nabin take effect immediately.
Several leaders have been tasked with states heading to the polls next year. General secretary Vinod Tawde will handle Uttar Pradesh, with Jagdish Patel, Medha Kulkarni, Pardeep Varma and Anand Ojha as co-in-charges. Vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda takes charge of Maharashtra, assisted by Amit Malviya, Sadanand Shet Tanawade and Kamaljeet Sehrawat.
Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh has been named in-charge for Gujarat, while Satish Poonia will oversee Punjab, with former Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva and Rajya Sabha MP Alka Gurjar as co-in-charges. Poonia has also been given charge of Jammu and Kashmir.
National general secretary Harish Dwivedi will look after Bihar and Karnataka. Sunil Bansal, also a national general secretary, has been appointed in-charge for Telangana and West Bengal; he was already handling Bengal after succeeding Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Senior leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe will serve as in-charge for Delhi, with Jamyang Tsering Namgyal and Darshana Jardosh as co-in-charges. Lok Sabha MP D Purandeswari has been assigned Odisha, with national secretary Swadesh Singh as co-in-charge.
Assam MLA Rajeep Roy will handle Manipur, another poll-bound state. Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb has been made in-charge for Madhya Pradesh, and former Union minister Bharati Pravin Pawar has been assigned Goa, which also votes next year.