Keeping an eye on Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due in 2022, former bureaucrat and MLC AK Sharma, also known to be a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been made BJP's vice president for the state.
For weeks, there had been speculation that Mr Sharma, a member of the legislative council in Uttar Pradesh and a former Indian Administrative Service officer, would be made a minister in UP. He was sent to PM Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi earlier this year to oversee the fight against Covid-19.
In order to strengthen the party organisational structure, various changes were made on Saturday including appointments of Archana Mishra and Amit Balmiki as Pradesh Mantris.
BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh on Saturday announced state chiefs for various fronts of the party.
While Pranshu Dutt Dwivedi from Farrukhabad has been handed over the charge of party's Yuva Morcha, Geeta Shakya, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, will be party's mahila morcha. Sanjay Gond from Gorakhpur has been declared as Scheduled Tribe Morcha and Kunwar Basit Ali from Meerut as state president of Minority Morcha.
Kameshwar Singh from Gorakhpur will look after Kisan Morcha, whereas, Narendra Kashyap Former MP (Ghaziabad) will look after Backward Classes Front and Kaushal Kishor will oversee Scheduled Caste Front.
Earlier this month, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and the party's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh had held review meetings with state ministers and leaders.
According to sources, based on the feedback from the review meetings, the BJP has held deliberations on the party's organisation in Uttar Pradesh.
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Earlier on Friday, Swatantra Dev Singh said that the next Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls will be contested under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
His comment has come two days after deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said the party's national leadership will decide under whom the upcoming elections will be fought.
"Corruption and hooliganism have ended and development is taking place. We will fight the 2022 elections under hardworking and honest Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath," Swatantra Dev told reporters.
To a question on the Opposition parties' allegation of corruption in land purchase for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Singh asked "where is the Opposition" and left without taking any more questions.
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Elections to 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are due in 2022.
In 2017, the BJP had registered a landslide victory polls winning over 300 seats. The Assembly polls will be the biggest litmus test of the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha constituencies, the highest amongst all states.
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