BJP chief Nitin Nabin made these appointments on Tuesday, a day after his long-delayed team of office-bearers was announced. Tawde and Sunil Bansal are the only two general secretaries who have been retained in the new list. As the in-charge of Bihar elections, Tawde had meticulously looked at the political landscape of the state and was part of the election strategy preparation along with other senior leaders. He also has a good equation with Nabin, who had seen his work from close quarters in his home state of Bihar.
Tawde’s new responsibility in Uttar Pradesh is on expected lines. There had been a buzz in the party’s top echelons that he would play a crucial role in UP even before the announcement of Nabin’s new team on Monday. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, who is the UP BJP unit chief, has already got his team of office-bearers and begun the groundwork in the state after the monsoon session of Parliament ended on August 13.
Jagdish Ishwarbhai Patel, newly appointed national secretary, will be the election co-in-charge in UP. He was elected to the Gujarat assembly in a by-election in 2019 from Amraiwadi. After completing his term in late 2022, Patel became active in UP, where, for the last three years, he has been part of the team of leaders managing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi.
The BJP has been in power in UP since 2017, and the 2027 election is a crucial battle for the party, as the outcome will be read as a weathervane for the 2029 Lok Sabha polls. In the 2024 general elections, BJP suffered a drastic fall in its tally from 62 seats in 2019 to 33 of the state’s 80 seats. Tawde, Patel, Chaudhary and others, therefore, face a litmus test. The outcome will also determine, to a great extent, the future of two-time chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Incidentally, Bansal also has an impressive record as election in-charge in UP, besides handling party affairs as general secretary in Odisha and West Bengal. He is likely to be roped in later for the UP polls.
Satish Poonia, a Jat leader who was earlier BJP Rajasthan chief and was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha, will be the election in-charge of Punjab elections, which will be held along with UP polls.Though no official announcement has been made yet about the other leaders to be involved in Punjab, AAP defector Sandeep Pathak, who is back in the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket, and former SAD leader Manpreet Badal will be among a host of party functionaries involved in BJP’s poll campaign. Badal is a national vice-president in the new team, while Pathak has been made national secretary.
Tarun Chugh, Rajya Sabha MP and now in-charge of BJP headquarters here, will be the party’s election in-charge in Modi’s home state Gujarat.
Assembly polls are due in UP and Punjab in February and in Gujarat in December 2027.
