BJP chief JP Nadda announces new team of state in-charges; Jay Panda, CT Ravi & Amit Malviya promoted

Months after appointing his core team and a day ahead of Diwali, BJP President JP Nadda on Friday appointed in-charges and co-incharges for states and Union Territories. There were four major promotions - Jay Panda, CT Ravi, Amit Malviya and Sambit Patra.

A key part of Team Nadda, Jay Panda, who held the post of national Vice President, has been given two crucial responsibilities - Assam and Delhi. In poll-bound Assam, the BJP faces uncertainty over local opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Delhi is known to be one of the most divided houses where the party has been out of power for two decades now. The trust Nadda has shown in Panda makes him a very important player within the BJP, who will not only have to coordinate with Himanta Biswa Sarma and Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal to bring BJP back to power, but also build a cohesive organisation in the national capital that can unitedly fight AAP in the next Assembly polls.

After being promoted to the post of General Secretary, Karnataka’s CT Ravi continued to climb the ladder within the organisation. Now he has been made in-charge of three states - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Goa. He was the co-incharge of Tamil Nadu, where the party has of late given much attention.

The previous in-charge was P Muralidhar Rao, who was dropped from Team Nadda last time. However, he has been made in-charge of Madhya Pradesh this time, where the BJP is in power and enjoyed great success in recent bypoll results.

Ravi being made the in-charge of Maharashtra, a state the BJP still wants to win back from the Sena-Cong-NCP alliance, shows his stature.

Amit Malviya has been given the responsibility West Bengal, which goes to the polls early next year, along with Kailash Vijayvargiya. Party spokesman Sambit Patra has been made in-charge of Manipur.

D. Purandeshwari has been made in-charge of Odisha. Previously, Arun Singh held the charge who has now been given the charge of Rajasthan. Singh is part of Nadda’s core team and was appointed General Secretary earlier.

In Uttar Pradesh, Radhamohan Singh, whose work as a minister had impressed the government, has been made the in-charge, replacing Om Mathur.