With less than five months to go for assembly polls in five states, the BJP on Wednesday appointed ministers as election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will handle the BJP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi will be the in-charge of Uttarakhand.

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been appointed as the in-charge of Punjab while the Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav will be the election in-charge in Manipur.

Apart from election in-charge in five states, the BJP has also divided the state into six regions and made separate in-charges for the organizational work. These are Sanjay Bhatia (UP West), Sanjeev Chaurasia (Braj), Y Satya Kumar (Awadh), Sudhir Gupta (Kanpur) Arvind Menon (Gorakhpur) and Sunil Ojha (Kashi).

Dharmendra Pradhan has a good experience of handling elections in the states like Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and other states and is well-versed in organizational matters. Earlier, he has handled the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, where the party was facing a tough challenge from Kamal Nath-led Congress.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, Minister of States Arjun Ram Meghwal, Shoba Karandlaje and Annpurna Devi, Rajya Sabha MPs Saroj Pande and Vivek Thakur, and Haryana Minister Capt Abhimanyu will be the co-in-charge in the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi will look after the poll affairs in Uttarakhand, where the BJP has several chief ministerial contenders, but also face a resurgent Congress under Harish Rawat. In Uttarakhand, the BJP had changed its chief minister twice in these five years has not gone down well with the voters.

West Bengal MP Locket Chatterjee and party spokesperson RP Singh will be co-in-charge.

For assembly elections in Punjab, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will handle the poll campaign with Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Meenakshi Lekhi who have been appointed as the co-inchrage.

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This time, the BJPs stakes are high in Punjab as the party will contest all 117 assembly seats amid an unprecedented backlash for its leaders in the state due to the farmer protests against the three farm laws.

Earlier, the BJP had fielded its candidates in 23 constituencies in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal, who will contest assembly polls in Punjab with BSP next year. The Aam Aadmi Party is also trying to increase its political footprint in Punjab.

The party has named Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav to be in-charge of Manipur assembly elections. He will be assisted by Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik and Assam Minister Ashok Singhal.

Yadav is known as a good election strategist and will have his task cut out to get a second consecutive term for BJP in Manipur where N Biren Singh heads the government.

For Goa, the BJP has been appointed former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as the election in-charge. He will be assisted by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy and MP Darshana Jardosh.

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The post BJP appoints party leaders for election campaigns: Dharmendra Pradhan in Uttar Pradesh, Prahlad Joshi in Uttarakhand, Gajendra Shekhawat in Punjab, Bhupendra Yadav in Manipur, Fadnavis for Goa appeared first on APN News.

Maharashtra Governor B.S Koshyari today appointed BJP MLA Kalidas Kolambkar as the pro-tem speaker of the assembly. 

Governor administered the oath to eight-time Wadala MLA Kolambkar was one of the candidates recommended for the post to the governor. Kolambkar was previously associated with the Shiv Sena and then Congress. 

The Supreme Court today in its order asked the Governor to appoint the pro-tem speaker for a special session of the Maharashtra Assembly at 8 am tomorrow.

After Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis resignation, the anti-BJP tripartite which includes NCP, Shiv Sena, and Congress, is likely to stake claim.

The post BJP’s Kalidas Kolambkar appointed pro-tem speaker, Maharashtra MLAs to take oath tomorrow appeared first on APN News.