Gordhan Zadafia makes a return as BJP's UP poll incharge

As 2019 general election nears, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday appointed 22 election incharges and co-incharges for 18 states.

Former Gujarat minister and party's Hindutva face Gordhan Zadafia has been made incharge of the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh which has 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. Zadafia, who had served as a Minister of State for Home in the Gujarat government during 2001-2002, had left the BJP in 2007, but returned to the party in 2014. In the run-up to 2014 elections, Amit Shah was the election incharge for the crucial state of UP where the party had won as many as 71 seats of its own.

BJP vice-president Dushyant Gautam and Narottam Mishra – a former cabinet minister during the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh – are the co-incharges for the politically crucial state.

While party general secretary Bhupender Yadav has been made the incharge of politically significant Bihar, BJP vice-president Om Prakash Mathur will be the incharge of Gujarat. Yadav's appointment as the election incharge for Bihar is being a triumph card to steer a new social engineering in Bihar.

Swatantra Dev Singh, a Minister in Uttar Pradesh government, has been appointed as election incharge of Madhya Pradesh, another politically significant state. Satish Upadhyay, former Delhi unit president of the party, has been made the co-incharge of the state.

Significantly, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has been drafted to steer the party's campaign for Rajasthan and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi will be the co-incharge for the crucial state. Similarly, Union Social Justice Minister Thawarchand Gehlot has been tasked to steer the party's campaign in Uttarakhand.

For Odisha, the party has given election management task to general secretary Arun Singh, who has been overseeing the party matters of the state for the last many years.