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Amid ongoing discussions to finalise the BJP’s strategy for the state elections scheduled for later this year, the party’s top leadership on Friday appointed Union ministers and senior party leaders to oversee its poll preparations.
The appointment of four Union ministers as the election in-charges of poll-bound Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana came three days after the party nominated new state unit presidents for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Punjab. The ministers will lead and coordinate the party’s electoral efforts.
The appointments indicate the leadership’s tactic to keep key ministers involved with the party’s activities to help them gain relevant experience in organisational activities and help them raise their stature in the party.
In Rajasthan, the BJP has placed Union Minister Pralhad Joshi in charge. Former Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and former Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, who joined the party last August, have been appointed co-in-charges. In Chhattisgarh, senior party leader Om Prakash Mathur will be in charge while Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya will assist him. Union minister and senior party leader Bhupender Yadav will oversee the preparation for the party’s effort to retain power in Madhya Pradesh while his Cabinet colleague Ashwini Vaishnaw will assist him. In Telangana, where the party is desperate to become the alternative force, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar will be in charge while party general secretary Sunil Bansal will be the co-in-charge.
Vaishnaw, Mandaviya — who was the co-in-charge in Karnataka too — and Joshi are believed to enjoy the full confidence of Narendra Modi. They have been appointed to oversee poll preparation in the three states where the party is in a tough battle against the Congress. “The appointments are a clear signal that the party leadership wants them to be more exposed to organisational activities. These ministers have key roles in the government too,” said a source.
Among the latest appointees, Mathur and Bansal, a national general secretary, are already the organisational in-charges of the states where they have now been tasked with supervising the party’s electoral preparedness. Sources said this was a “rare move” by the party. While Mathur has been the central leader in charge of Chhattisgarh BJP since last September, Bansal has been overseeing the party’s organisational affairs in Telangana since last August.
The experience of Bhupender Yadav — who, in the past, has worked in several crucial states such as Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat — is expected to boost party activities in Madhya Pradesh, a state where the party organisation is robust and active. Although four-term CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is battling anti-incumbency and a “fatigue factor”, BJP leaders have pointed out that he is “much ahead of rival (Congress leader and former CM) Kamal Nath in mass mobilisation, communication, and connection with people”.
Said a party leader: “His image of being the ‘welfare mama (welfare uncle)’ will definitely give him an edge once the party hits the road against the corporate-friendly image of Kamal Nath. Besides that, the BJP is a karyakarta-driven party and it has a well-oiled machine. Unlike in 2018, where many in the party had taken the election for granted, party workers are alert this time.”
Sources said Javadekar’s role in Telangana would be significant as in the past he “dealt with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and with the state” and his “experience will come to the rescue of the BJP, which is facing a crisis in the state”. A source said, “Despite its hectic activities, the BJP’s prospects in Telangana are still ambiguous. The party has to tactfully do the political manoeuvring. Only experienced political hands can handle it.”
With the appointment of Joshi, a sharp politician from Karnataka, in the Hindi heartland state of Rajasthan surprising many in the party, sources said the minister had handled critical political situations in a state such as Uttarakhand in the past. Both Bishnoi and Patel have connections with significant communities and regions in Rajasthan and are expected to utilise their proximity to the state for electoral advantage.
To finalise the party’s strategies for the state elections and the Lok Sabha polls, Modi has been chairing marathon meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. They were later joined by BJP national president J P Nadda. Key leaders from northern, central and western states — 14 of them — also met at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Friday.
