BJP names state in-charges: Vinod Tawde gets UP, Smriti Irani given Haryana, Chhattisgarh

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday appointed in-charges of 36 states and UTs including Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, which will go to polls in 2027.

The party has appointed national vice president Ram Madhav as in charge of poll-bound Uttarakhand, while former national secretary Arvind Menon and Lok Sabha MP Bansuri Swaraj will be the co-incharges. The state will vote early next year and the BJP is hoping to retain power for the third consecutive term.

Ram Madhav will also be in charge of Tamil Nadu while MP from Mahabubnagar DK Aruna and Nirmal Kumar Surana will be the co in-charges.

National general secretary Vinod Tawde has been appointed as in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP has been in power since 2017.

Satish Poonia, also a national general secretary has been given charge of Punjab. Former head of the Delhi state unit, Virendra Sachdeva and Alka Gurjar will be co-in-charges in Punjab. Although the BJP had indicated that it will go solo in the state, there are reports that it is still trying to firm up an alliance with its former ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal. Poonia has also been made in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir.

National general secretary Sunil Bansal will continue to be in charge of West Bengal and Telangana.

Former union minister, Bharti Pawar has been given charge of poll-bound Goa and Anil Anthony has been made the co-in-charge. Anthony will also have the charge of Nagaland.

Legislator and minister from Assam, Rajdeep Roy has been given charge of poll-bound Manipur, where the BJP faces several challenges on account of the continued tensions between the Meitis and the Kukis.

National general secretary Smriti Irani has been given charge of Chhattisgarh and Haryana while Harish Diwedi also a national general secretary has been given charge of Bihar and Karnataka.

Former MP minister Arvind Bhadhoria has been made in-charge of Andhra Pradesh where former head of the women’s wing Vanathi Srinivasan has been made co-in-charge.

In Assam, the BJP has appointed Rajya Sabha MP Phangnon Konyak as the in-charge. Former RS MP, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has been given charge of Delhi and former union minister Darshanaben Jardosh and former president of the Ladakh unit Jamyang Namgyal have been made the co in- charges.

In Gujarat, which will also go to polls later next year the party has made former general secretary Tarun Chugh as the state in-charge while Srikant Sharma, a former minister in the UP cabinet has been given charge of Himachal Pradesh.

National general secretary Gajendra Patel has been given charge of Jharkhand while Rajya Sabha MP M Nagaraja will be in-charge of Keralam.

Delhi legislator Rajkumar Bhatia has been given charge of Ladakh and former union minister George Kurien of Lakshwadeep.

Former Tripura chief Minister and national general secretary Biplab Deb has been given charge of Madhya Pradesh. National vice president Bijayant Panda will be in charge of Maharashtra. The Party has appointed three co- in-charges in Maharashtra, Lok Sabha MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat, RS MP Sadanand Tanavade and Amit Malviya, the former IT cell head.

K Purkhayastha has been given charge of Meghalaya while Bhagwat Karad, a former union minister will look after Mizoram. National vice president D Purandeshwari will be in-charge for Odisha and former Kerala unit president K Surendran of Puducherry.

National general secretary Sanjay Bhatia has been made in-charge of Rajasthan; Lok Sabha lawmaker Raju Bista of Sikkim and national secretary, Mriganka Deo Barman has been given charge of Tripura.