BJP chief Nadda appoints state in-charges; Panda, CT Ravi elevated, Shah's team retained

One-and-half months after BJP chief J P Nadda appointed the party's new National office bearers, Nadda on Friday, released the list of state-in-charges. Among the most significant appointments, BJD-turned-BJP leader Baijayant Panda has been made in charge of Assam and Delhi. Meanwhile, C.T Ravi - ex-Karnataka minister and the national general secretary has been given the leadership of three states - Goa, Maharashtra, and the crucial poll-bound Tamil Nadu. Ex-BJP chief Amit Shah's team-  Bhupender Yadav (Bihar, Gujarat), Kailash Vijayavargiya (West Bengal), Arun Singh (Rajasthan, Karnataka ) have been retained.

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BJP appoints state in-charges

Another significant appointment is NTR's daughter- D Purandareswari, who has been made in-charge of Chhatisgarh and Odisha, while former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh has been made in-charge of Uttar Pradesh. Senior spokespersons Nalin Kohli and Sambit Patra have been made in-charge of Nagaland and Manipur respectively and Rajya Sabha MP Dushyant Kumar Gautam has been made in-charge of Uttarakhand, Punjab, and Chandigarh. Significantly, BJP I-T cell chief Amit Malviya has been made the co-in charge of West Bengal, while national secretary Vinod Tawde has been named in-charge of Haryana.

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BJP's new national team

Previously in September, Nadda released the list of new National office bearers of the party. While most senior leaders and ex-CMs like - Raman Singh, Vasundhara Raje, Raghubar Das were retained as state Vice-presidents, several younger leaders were elevated. Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya has replaced Poonam Mahajan as the new BJP Yuva Morcha chief while late Deputy CM Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde has been made national secretary. The BJP has also reshuffled its national spokespersons - dropping leaders G V.L Narasimha Rao and Meenakshi Lekhi.  One of the biggest change is that Ram Madhav has been replaced with Punjab's Tarun Chugh as General Secretary. This is the first time Nadda has rejigged the team, since taking over as party president from Amit Shah in January.

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Maintaining more or less the same team as Shah, Nadda has reshuffled key players among states. Ahead of the crucial Madhya Pradesh by-polls, BJP retained its senior Kailash Vijaywargiya as party General secretary from Madhya Pradesh - in stiff opposition to newly joined Jyotiraditya Scindia. While Nadda retained seniors like Bhupender Yadav, C.T Ravi, Arun Singh, he dropped several others from Shah's team like - Ram Madhav, Murlidhar Rao, Anil Jain have been dropped. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has been dropped as party national spokesperson, while his cabinet peer Dharmendra Pradhan has been dropped as party general secretary. Nadda  - who himself was a core member of Shah's team in 2014 has retained only Bhupender Yadav, Kailash Vijaywargiya and Arun Singh.

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