Nitin Nabin Appoints BJP In-Charges For Poll-Bound UP, Punjab, Gujarat

BJP president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday appointed Rajya Sabha MP Vinod Tawde and national general secretary as in-charge of party affairs in Uttar Pradesh and newly appointed national secretary Jagdish Ishwarbhai Patel as co-in-charge.Newly appointed BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Satish Poonia was made in-charge of party affairs in Punjab, according to a notification issued by the party.Nabin made Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Chugh in-charge of party affairs in Gujarat."These appointments will come into effect immediately. The appointment of other state in-charges will be made in due course; meanwhile, the current Prabhari arrangement will continue," the BJP said in a circular.According to party sources, these appointments have been made in view of the assembly polls next year. While the assembly elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are due early next year, Gujarat will go to polls later in 2027.This comes a day after the BJP overhauled its national team under party chief Nitin Nabin, bringing in many new faces and some prominent leaders like former Union minister Smriti Irani as general secretary and former RSS functionary Ram Madhav as vice president.The number of vice presidents in the new team has been increased to 13 from 11, out of which nine are new. The total number of national general secretaries has also been increased to eight from the previous seven. The BJP's new team has 16 national secretaries. There were 11 national secretaries in the previous team.Tawde and Sunil Bansal are the only two national general secretaries that the BJP has retained in its new team. Poonia, former Rajasthan BJP president, is one of the new faces brought into the team of eight national general secretaries.According to party sources, both Tawde and Bansal were rewarded for their impressive organisational work. Sources said the party noted Bansal's contribution to the BJP's victory in the West Bengal Assembly polls.Tarun Chugh, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, has been made the party's central office in-charge in place of Rajya Sabha MP Arun Singh. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)