Shah announces team to steer BJP poll campaign in 17 states

Putting in place his team for steering the Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign in the Lok Sabha polls, party president Amit Shah on Wednesday appointed in-charges for 17 states, drafting in Union minister Prakash Javadekar for Rajasthan and Thawarchand Gehlot, another minister, for Uttarakhand.

Besides in-charges, the party has also named co-incharges for several states, a BJP statement said.

Govardhan Jhadapia, a Gujarat leader, Dushyant Gautam, a party vice president, and Narottam Mishra, who is from Madhya Pradesh, have been given the responsibility for Uttar Pradesh, a politically crucial state, where the BJP is likely to face a tough challenge from a prospective alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

BJP general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Anil Jain were assigned Bihar and Chhattisgarh, respectively, for the 2019 polls, according to the statement.

Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan and party secretary Deodhar Rao will steer the campaign in Andhra Pradesh.

Mahendra Singh and O P Mathur will be in-charge of Assam and Gujarat respectively, the statement said.

The BJP has also appointed in-charges and co-incharges for several other states, including Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Telangana and Sikkim among others, besides the Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi will be a co-incharge in Rajasthan.

Uttar Pradesh Minister Swatantra Dev Singh and former Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay will be in-charge and co-incharge, respectively, for Madhya Pradesh.

BJP general secretary Arun Singh, Haryana minister Abhimanyu, former Karnataka minister Arvind Limbavali and former Uttarakhand party chief Tirath Singh Rawat have been assigned the responsibility for Odisha, Punjab, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, respectively.

Abhimanyu will also be in-charge for Chandigarh for the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli has been assigned the task for Nagaland as well as Manipur, the party said.

Bihar minister Mangal Pandey will be in-charge for Jharkhand.

Party sources said in-charges for more states such as West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be announced in the coming days.