LUCKNOW: With the crucial 2022 assembly polls inching closer in Uttar Pradesh, parties have intensified their preparations for the big political battle with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulling out all stops by setting up a multi-layered organisational structure comprising two central teams and one state team to oversee foolproof monitoring and coordination of poll-related programmes in the days to come.
Party leaders have been mandated to make various groups of those associated directly with the party and also those who can help it during the campaign. Senior leaders have been asked to hold meetings with each of these groups.
According to the party’s state unit president Swatantra Deo Singh, general secretaries in charge of the regional units of Awadh, Braj, Kashi (Varanasi), west UP, Kanpur and Gorakhpur have been asked to streamline the campaign in the coming days.
National leaders who are part of the BJP’s central election team have also been assigned regions. Union Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal will look after the party’s campaign in Braj region while MoS for Agriculture Shobha Karandlaje is in charge of Awadh. MoS for Education Annapurna Devi has been assigned Kanpur, while Rajya Sabha members Saroj Pandey and Vivek Thakur are in charge of Varanasi and Gorakhpur divisions respectively. Former Haryana minister Captain Abhimanyu, a Jat himself, has been entrusted with nurturing western UP by placating the Jat farmers in the wake of ongoing protests over the three contentious farm laws.
Moreover, six co-in-charges have also been named under BJP national vice-president Radha Mohan Singh who is the central leader in charge of the BJP’s state organisation. Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia will look after western UP, while Bihar MLA Sanjiv Chaurasia is co-in-charge of Braj.
BJP national secretary Y Satya Kumar has been assigned Awadh while the party’s co-treasurer Sudhir Gupta has been handed the responsibility for Kanpur. BJP national secretary Arvind Menon has been assigned Gorakhpur while former Gujarat MLA Sunil Oza is in charge of the organisation in Varanasi.
Meanwhile, Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is part of the central election team led by his Cabinet colleague Dharmendra Pradhan, will supervise the media cell.
As per BJP sources, all three teams will oversee organisational and poll preparation-related work. Election in-charges and co-in-charges have to be more focused on poll-related activities, such as electoral rolls and panna pramukhs, and connect with potential BJP voters.