PM Modi’s man in Nitin Nabin’s core team: The Gujarat subplot in BJP rejig
Jagdish Patel’s appointment as the BJP’s co-in-charge for Uttar Pradesh is significant. Patel was appointed the party’s national general secretary on Monday, and the co-in-charge role followed.
PM Narendra Modi with BJP national general secretary Jagdish Patel (Credits: X/ @IJAGDISHPATEL) As part of the ongoing reshuffle within the BJP leadership, the party’s national president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday appointed Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh, 53, as the party’s Gujarat in-charge with immediate effect. This marks the end of the nearly 10-year tenure of Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, 57, as the BJP’s Gujarat in-charge.
Nabin also appointed the BJP’s newly appointed national secretary from Gujarat, Jagdish Patel, 62, as the party’s co-in-charge for Uttar Pradesh. Patel, known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is learnt to have played a key role in his victory in Varanasi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Bhupender Yadav’s tenure ends
Yadav, currently the Union Minister for Forest, Environment and Climate Change and a Lok Sabha MP from neighbouring Rajasthan, was appointed the Gujarat in-charge by then party president Amit Shah. His appointment was made when Gujarat was facing the Patidar quota agitation that threatened to wean away its core vote bank.
In the state polls that December, the BJP managed to retain power, but with the narrowest margin since 1995, winning 99 seats in the 182-member Assembly. The Congress won 77 seats, its best show since 1995.
The BJP, however, pacified the Patidar community and managed to bounce back. In the 2022 election, it won a record 156 seats in the Gujarat Assembly.
And now, the 2027 Assembly polls, which would be held in the aftermath of Gen Z’s political coming of age, will be the key assignment for Chugh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh. Another task on his list would be the 2029 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress won just one seat in Gujarat in the 2024 general election. In 2014 and 2019, the BJP won all 26 parliamentary seats in the state.
A BJP source said, “The 2027 Gujarat elections are likely to set the tone for the 2029 general election. semifinal. For Chugh, the challenge will be to repeat the party’s stellar performance in 2022.
Jagdish Patel: Backroom boy takes up big role
Jagdish Patel’s appointment as the BJP’s co-in-charge for Uttar Pradesh is significant. Patel was appointed the party’s national general secretary on Monday, and the co-in-charge role followed.
Patel is known to be close to Prime Minister Modi. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he is believed to have played a key role in the Prime Minister’s victory in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
“Had Patel not been there in Varanasi in 2024, the winning margin of PM Modi would have been narrow,” said a BJP leader.
In the 2024 election, Prime Minister Modi retained the Varanasi seat, but his winning margin fell sharply – from over 4.7 lakh votes in 2019 to 1.52 lakh votes in 2024. The party suffered a setback in Uttar Pradesh in 2024, its seat score dropping by 29. As Patel takes over his new role, the upcoming Uttar Pradesh election would be his first big challenge.
Belonging to the Kadva Patidar sub-caste in the Patidar community, Patel is a former MLA from the Amraiwadi constituency of Ahmedabad. He has held key responsibilities in Gujarat BJP, heading the Ahmedabad city unit, and Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar and Surendranagar district units. He is also a former corporator of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Professionally, Patel is a businessman in the engineering sector and has interests in space defence and indigenous development.
A party source said, “Patel has been looking after the affairs of Uttar Pradesh for some time now. The latest appointment gives it a formal tag. He is performing the duties earlier handled by late Sunil Oza in Uttar Pradesh.”
Oza, originally from Bhavnagar in Gujarat, died of a heart attack in December 2023.
Patel told The Indian Express, “I have been working in UP for the past three years. I have been there since before (2024) elections. Now, I will work there formally.” Asked about the challenges for the BJP in the upcoming elections especially after the protests by Gen Z, Patel said, “There is no such major issue in UP. It is a unique place. There it is enough to focus on the development work done by Modiji and Yogiji (Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath). In Varanasi alone, work worth Rs 70,000 crore has been done. So, there is great change there in terms of development. There is no impact of it (protests) on voters there. The temperament of the people of UP is quite different.”
He added, “Earlier, people used to come to Gujarat (for work). Now, those who have come to Gujarat are going back. It means that the trend has changed. The means of livelihood are available in plenty there. I have a factory (of industrial gears) and 70 per cent of staff is from UP-Bihar. Now, when they go home, I have to send them a ticket to come back. Today, the situation is such that one has to request a labourer, who has gone to native, to come back. That is the situation.”
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