Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Bharatiya Janata Party has unveiled a new organisational line-up across all 28 states and eight Union Territories, appointing state in-charges and co-in-charges under party president Nitin Nabin. The appointments, announced today, come weeks after the BJP’s national organisational reshuffle in August and mark the completion of another key layer of Nabin’s team.
The reshuffle, however, is about more than a change of names. The choice of who has been sent where, who has been entrusted with multiple states and the mix of seasoned election managers and newer organisational faces offer a glimpse into the BJP’s organisational strategy for the months ahead.
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TEAM BEING POSITIONED FOR 2027 ELECTION CYCLE
The appointments come at a crucial point in the BJP’s political calendar, with several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Manipur, due for Assembly elections in 2027. The new organisational line-up, therefore, gives the party’s state units a fresh structure to work with well ahead of the electoral cycle.
The BJP had already appointed its prabharis for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat in August, naming Vinod Tawde for Uttar Pradesh, Satish Poonia for Punjab and Tarun Chugh for Gujarat. With the latest announcement, the larger state-in-charge structure is now in place.
The new prabharis will have considerable time to work with state units, assess organisational strengths and gaps, coordinate with state leadership and shape the party’s ground-level preparations ahead of the upcoming electoral contests.
UP GETS AN EXPANSIVE ORGANISATIONAL TEAM
Perhaps the most closely watched appointment is that of Vinod Tawde as Uttar Pradesh in-charge, with four co-in-charges, Jagdish Patel, Medha Kulkarni, Pradeep Verma and Anant Ojha, assisting him.
Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state with 80 Lok Sabha seats, has been given one of the most elaborate organisational structures in the new arrangement. The decision to place a senior national general secretary at the helm, backed by four co-in-charges, underlines the scale of the organisational responsibility assigned to the state.
Tawde, a national general secretary with extensive organisational experience, was already appointed the Uttar Pradesh in-charge in August. His continuation in the role, now with a wider team, comes well ahead of the 2027 Assembly election and gives the BJP considerable time to work on its organisational preparations in the state.
SMRITI IRANI GETS HARYANA, CHHATTISGARH
One of the biggest political signals is the deployment of Smriti Irani as in-charge of both Haryana and Chhattisgarh, with Bhola Singh assisting her in Haryana and Siddharth Shambhu in Chhattisgarh.
Smriti Irani returned to the BJP’s central organisational structure in August as one of its national general secretaries. Her new assignments therefore give her direct responsibility over two state organisations in addition to her national role.
The Haryana-Chhattisgarh combination is also notable because it gives a nationally recognised leader responsibility across two geographically and politically different states. The arrangement suggests that the party is using senior national functionaries not only as state supervisors but also as links between the central organisation and state units.
RAM MADHAV GETS TAMIL NADU, UTTARAKHAND
Another notable example of a leader being given responsibility across multiple states is Ram Madhav, who has been appointed in-charge of Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, with separate teams of co-in-charges assisting him in both states.
Madhav’s return to the BJP’s central organisational structure as a national vice-president in August was itself a significant move.
His latest assignment places him in charge of two politically distinct states, Tamil Nadu, with its strong Dravidian political tradition, and Uttarakhand, where the BJP and Congress have been the principal contenders in recent electoral contests.
His deployment across the two states is also among the clearest examples of the BJP drawing on leaders with experience of handling organisational and political responsibilities beyond their home states.
BIHAR AND KARNATAKA UNDER HARISH DWIVEDI
Harish Dwivedi has been given responsibility for Bihar as well as Karnataka.
In Bihar, Dwivedi replaces Vinod Tawde and will work with national secretaries Sangeeta Yadav and Rohan Gupta as co-in-charges. Dwivedi had previously handled Assam and was elevated to national general secretary in Nitin Nabin’s August team.
The Bihar appointment is particularly significant because the state has recently gone through an important electoral cycle. The focus now shifts from campaigning to organisational consolidation, coordination with the state unit and preparing the party structure for the next political phase.
Giving Dwivedi Karnataka in addition to Bihar also reinforces the pattern of deploying national-level organisational managers across regions rather than restricting them to states with which they have a direct geographical connection.
SATISH POONIA GETS PUNJAB AND JAMMU & KASHMIR
Satish Poonia has been assigned charge of Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, adding the Union Territory to his existing responsibility in Punjab.
Poonia, a former Rajasthan BJP president and now a national general secretary, was appointed Punjab in-charge in August. He has now been given charge of Jammu & Kashmir as well, with Reena Kashyap assisting him there.
The Punjab assignment assumes added significance with the state due to go to the Assembly polls in 2027. The Jammu & Kashmir responsibility, meanwhile, places Poonia in charge of a politically and organisationally distinct Union Territory.
His expanded brief therefore spans two very different organisational settings — a state preparing for an upcoming Assembly election and a strategically important Union Territory.
SUNIL BANSAL GETS TELANGANA AND WEST BENGAL
Sunil Bansal has been given charge of both Telangana and West Bengal. This is another major multi-state assignment. Bansal is one of the two national general secretaries retained from the previous BJP central team and has a long record of organisational work.
Earlier reporting has specifically credited him with a significant organisational role in West Bengal. His deployment in West Bengal is therefore notable. The party has paired him with Lal Singh Arya, Rajendra Singh and Pinky Kushwaha as co-in-charges.
At the same time, Bansal’s Telangana responsibility gives him another southern assignment, making his role one of the most geographically wide-ranging in the new structure.
BAIJAYANT PANDA GETS 4-MEMBER TEAM FOR MAHARASHTRA
For Maharashtra, BJP vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda has been appointed in-charge, with Amit Malviya, Sadanand Shet Tanawade and Kamaljeet Sehrawat serving as co-in-charges.
The decision to have three co-in-charges alongside Panda reflects the scale and organisational complexity of the state. It also brings together leaders with varied organisational experience. Amit Malviya has been closely associated with the BJP’s digital and social media operations, while Tanawade has held organisational responsibilities in Goa and Sehrawat comes from the Delhi BJP structure.
The arrangement gives Maharashtra a wider organisational team, with responsibilities shared among multiple national-level functionaries rather than being concentrated in a single in-charge.
CHANGE OF GUARD FOR BIHAR
The Bihar appointment also deserves separate attention.
Harish Dwivedi replaces Vinod Tawde, who has now moved to Uttar Pradesh. Dwivedi will be supported by Sangeeta Yadav and Rohan Gupta.
Sangeeta Yadav is a national secretary and former MLA from Uttar Pradesh, while Rohan Gupta, who was earlier associated with the Congress, subsequently joined the BJP and became part of Nabin’s national team.
The Bihar team therefore combines an experienced national general secretary with two relatively newer members of the central organisation.
3-MEMBER LEADERSHIP FOR DELHI
For Delhi, the BJP has appointed Vinay Sahasrabuddhe as in-charge, with Jamyang Tsering Namgyal and Darshana Jardosh serving as co-in-charges.
The appointment carries added significance given Delhi’s dual role as the national capital and the headquarters of the BJP’s central organisation. The decision to have Sahasrabuddhe backed by two co-in-charges gives the Delhi unit a dedicated organisational team and a direct interface with the party’s central leadership.
FOCUS ON NORTHEAST, SMALLER STATES
The new organisational line-up spans the BJP’s entire organisational map, covering states from Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya to Union Territories such as Ladakh, Lakshadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Several appointments also point to the party’s emphasis on regional familiarity while deploying leaders beyond their home states. Phangnon Konyak and Manoj Tigga, for instance, have been assigned Assam as co-in-charges alongside Mangal Pandey, while Reena Kashyap from Himachal Pradesh has been given responsibility in Jammu & Kashmir.
Similarly, Nivedita Singh from Bihar has been appointed Jharkhand co-in-charge, while Rajendra Singh and Pinky Kushwaha, also from Bihar, have been assigned responsibilities in West Bengal.
The cross-state deployment allows the BJP to draw on the organisational experience of leaders across different regions, while giving state units access to functionaries familiar with varied political and organisational settings.
WOMEN LEADERS TAKE ON KEY ROLES
The list also has a substantial presence of women leaders.
Besides Smriti Irani, the appointments include Vanathi Srinivasan, Phangnon Konyak, Sangeeta Yadav, Gomti Sai, Darshana Jardosh, Bharati Pawar, Darshana Singh, Reena Kashyap, Nivedita Singh, D Purandeshwari, Kavita Patidar, Alka Gurjar, Medha Kulkarni, Bansuri Swaraj and Pinky Kushwaha, among others.
This follows the broader pattern visible in Nitin Nabin’s August national team, which also increased the presence of women in important organisational positions.
The August team included five women among the BJP’s 13 national vice-presidents, while Smriti Irani was the only woman among the eight national general secretaries.
BJL BALANCES YOUTH WITH EXPERIENCE
The appointments do not mark a wholesale shift towards younger leadership. Instead, the new line-up combines leaders in their 30s and 40s with several senior organisational figures in their 50s and 60s.
Among the younger faces are Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, Siddharth Shambhu, Gomti Sai, Mriganka Deb Barman and Bansuri Swaraj, while the line-up also includes more experienced organisational figures such as Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Mahendra Pandey and Ram Madhav.
The BJP had reworked its national team in August, bringing eight national general secretaries, 16 national secretaries and 13 vice-presidents into the new structure. The latest state-level appointments now establish the organisational link between the central leadership and BJP units across the states.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
