NEW DELHI: BJP Tuesday appointed Vinod Tawde, who was involved in its winning campaign in Bihar last year, as its state in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, the politically critical state which goes to the polls early next year, as it begins putting in place its team ahead of the next round of crucial contests.BJP made a series of appointments a day after its president, Nitin Nabin, announced the party’s new team of national office-bearers, with MP Satish Poonia given charge of Punjab, another poll-bound state, and MP Tarun Chugh of Gujarat.Tawde was being tipped for UP and the decision, when formally announced, marked his steady rise in the party’s national organisation, into which he was absorbed in 2020 following a period of uncertainty since being denied a ticket to contest the Maharashtra assembly poll in 2019.He was taken aboard as a national secretary and then elevated as a general secretary in 2021, a position he has retained in the new team. He has often served as a coordinator on key organisational issues and was in charge of Bihar in 2025 in a poll that NDA won empathically. Jagdish Ishwarbhai Patel, a secretary, has been made co-incharge of UP.
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
MP Tawde, a Maratha, is now in charge of two key heartland Hindi states as BJP looks to retain office for a third straight term in UP. It is also a state where relations between the party’s organisational machinery and govt led by CM Yogi Adityanath have been on an ev-en keel, making his role as the link between the two crucial.Poonia, a Jat and former Rajasthan BJP president, gets charge of Punjab at a time when the revival of the party’s alliance with Akali Dal is being seen as a possibility after the regional party’s president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, met PM Narendra Modi and announced his support for the delimitation bill that seeks to increase Lok Sabha’s strength.
