Amit Shah announces team to steer BJP Lok Sabha poll campaign for 17 states

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday announced the team for steering the BJP's campaign in the Lok Sabha election 2019, appointing in-charges for 17 states. Party president Amit Shah appointed Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Thawarchand Gehlot as in-charges for Rajasthan and Uttarakhand respectively. Besides in-charges, the party has also named co-in-charges 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 OP Mathur will be in-charge of Assam and Gujarat respectively, the statement said.

भारतीय जनता पार्टी के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री अमित शाह ने लोकसभा चुनाव 2019 की दृष्टि से विभिन्न प्रदेशों के लिए लोकसभा प्रभारी/सह प्रभारी नियुक्त किए। pic.twitter.com/Og7pvXvtvM

— BJP (@BJP4India) December 26, 2018

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

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi will be a co-in-charge 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 appointed for Nagaland and Manipur.  Bihar minister Mangal Pandey will be in-charge for Jharkhand.

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

(With PTI inputs)