NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday appointed election in-charges and co-in-charges for 23 states and Union territories, including Bihar, where the party is eyeing to return to power again in alliance with chief minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha polls.

BJP president JP Nadda has appointed Baijayant Panda as the election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, which sends maximum 80 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha. Panda, who is the party’s national vice-president and a former lawmaker, is also the state in-charge of Delhi and Assam.

Popularly known as “Jay” Panda, the senior leader had joined the BJP in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls after quitting the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). His appointment to oversee elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP currently has 62 MPs, is seen as a boost for Panda. Buoyed by the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the BJP is hopeful of increasing its tally in the state, where it faces a coalition of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, besides the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

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In Bihar, which is currently in the middle of a political storm with strong indications of Nitish Kumar inching closer to join hands with the BJP, party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde has been made the election in-charge while Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash will be the co-in-charge, the BJP announced in a statement.

Tawde, who is also the BJP’s in-charge for political affairs in Bihar, is counted among leaders who have been instrumental in planning and executing election and party-related plans. Recently, he was sent to Rajasthan as an observer to pick the new chief minister after the party swept the assembly elections in November last year.

Former Union minister Prakash Javadekar has been named as the election in-charge for Kerala, a state where he is also the in-charge of political affairs. Nadda has named former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani as the election in-charge of Punjab and Chandigarh. Party national secretary Narinder Singh will assist Rupani in Punjab, the BJP statement said.

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Former Tripura CM Biplab Deb will be in-charge of Haryana, with Rajya Sabha member Surendra Singh Nagar as the co-in-charge. The BJP, which runs a coalition government in the state with the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), has asserted it would contest all 10 seats in the state on its own.

Former Uttar Pradesh minister Shrikant Sharma will oversee the poll preparations in Himachal Pradesh, with Sanjat Tandon assisting him. The BJP has appointed national general secretary Tarun Chugh as the poll in-charge for the UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Party leader Ashish Sood has been named as the in-charge for Goa and will also assist Chugh in J&K poll preparations.

BJP national vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Laxmikant Bajpai will be the election in-charge for Jharkhand, while national secretary Y Satya Kumar will head the poll preparations in Andaman and Nicobar. Assam minister Ashok Singhal will oversee Arunachal Pradesh while Purnesh Modi and Dushyant Patel in Daman and Diu. In Karnataka, national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agarwal and MP Sudhakar Reddy have been named as in-charge and co-in-charge.

National secretary Arvind Menon has been appointed for Lakshadweep; Mahendra Kumar Sing and Satish Upadhyay for Madhya Pradesh; Vijaypal Singh Tomar and Lata Usendi for Odisha; Nirmal Kumar Surana for Puducherry; Dilip Jaiswal for Sikkim; Arvind Menon and Sudhakar Reddy for Tamil Nadu; and Dushyant Kumar Gautham for Uttarakhand.

BJP’s in-charge for West Bengal Mangal Pandey has also been appointed the election in-charge for the eastern state. Party leaders Amit Malviya and Asha Lakra will be the co-in-charges.