Ahead Of Lok Sabha Polls, BJP Appoints In-Charges For 17 States

BJP president Amit Shah Wednesday appointed the party's in-charges for the Lok Sabha polls for 17 states, drafting Union minister Prakash Javadekar for steering the campaign in Rajasthan and Thawarchand Gehlot, another minister, for Uttarakhand.

Gordhan Zadaphia, a Gujarat leader and once a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was made in-charge of the party in Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Zadaphia, along with Dushyant Gautam, who is a party vice president, and Narottam Mishra, who is from Madhya Pradesh, will take charge of the politically crucial state, where the BJP is likely to face a tough challenge from a prospective alliance of the SP and the BSP.

BJP general secretaries Bhupender Yadav and Anil Jain have been assigned Bihar and Chhattisgarh respectively, according to a statement.

Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan and party secretary Deodhar Rao will be in-charge of Andhra Pradesh.

Mahendra Singh and OP 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.