Pradhan and Shekhawat to oversee affairs of UP, Pb

New Delhi: Kicking off the poll preparedness for the upcoming Assembly elections in the five states, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the election in-charges for respective poll-bound states- Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Wednesday. Senior cabinet ministers, members of Parliament, party general secretaries or secretaries or the state ministers have been given the mandate to oversee the election strategies.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who had been the election in-charge in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka will now oversee the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Pradhan will be assisted by his cabinet colleagues information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, Arjun Meghwal, Shobha Karandalaje, his junior minister Annapurna Devi, as well as Saroj Pande, former Haryana minister Captain Abhimanyu and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur.

The state has also been divided into six parts for organisational purposes, with Lok Sabha member Sanjay Bhatia in charge of western UP, Bihar MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia in-charge of the Brij region, national secretary Y Satya Kumar in-charge of Awadh, additional treasurer of the BJP Sudhir Gupta in-charge of Kanpur, national secretary Arvind Menon for Gorakhpur and Sunil Ojha is in-charge of Kashi.

Another senior minister of the Modi cabinet and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has been appointed as the election in-charge of Uttarakhand, assisted by Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee and party spokesperson R P Singh. Though the party is witnessing infighting and changed two chief ministers within a year, it has claimed to retain power with a majority.

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been given charge of Punjab along with Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Meenakshi Lekhi and Lok Sabha member Vinod Chavda. The saffron party may face hurdles in the state as the oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal quit the NDA over the farm laws.

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis - had been the Bihar assembly poll in-charge in 2020, will now oversee Goa, along with tourism minister G. Kishan Reddy and junior minister of rail Darshana Jardosh.

This apart, another Modi's cabinet minister Bhupender Yadav, who had managed the BJP's campaign and election work in many key states like Gujarat and Bihar, has been appointed as election in-charge of North-East state Manipur. He will be assisted by another Minister of State for Social Justice of the Government of India, Pratima Bhaumik and Assam Minister Ashok Singhal.

According to a party source, BJP may start the election campaign in all poll-bound states post-September 15. Millennium Post accessed exclusive information that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah may hold 60 to 65 different programmes across Uttar Pradesh in the coming six months, while the Prime Minister's programme will be focused on more government projects, than political programmes.

Meanwhile, BJP leadership is holding surveys in every district, and "This time, PM Modi's programme will be slated on basis of public demand, clubbing every three districts together," a party source confirmed the Millennium Post.

Assembly elections in all five states are scheduled for the next year, in 2022.