Apparently, in view of the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP on Monday appointed senior party leaders as in-charges and co-incharges for the four election-bound States.
BJP national president JP Nadda made the announcement to this effect on Monday. The most keenly watched Assembly polls would, however, be for Haryana and Maharashtra scheduled to be held around October 2024 — about four months from now as these would be the first real test for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and INDIA Bloc after the Lok Sabha polls.
Notably, both the BJP-ruled States have thrown not-so-good results for the NDA.
The Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana would be a litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity. Maharashtra Assembly has 288 members while Haryana has 90 members.
Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav has been appointed as the in-charge for Maharashtra while Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will be the co-incharge for the State.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been made the BJP’s election in-charge for Haryana and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb the co-incharge for the State.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the election in-charge for Jharkhand and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma the co-incharge for the State.
For Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are to be held before September on the directive of the Supreme Court, the BJP has deployed Union Minister G Kishan Reddy.
While Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand are due later this year, the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to hold the elections in Jammu and Kashmir by September.
In Haryana, the BJP, which had won all 10 seats in 2019, finished with just five seats in 2024 elections.
The Congress party bagged five of ten seats from Haryana in 2024 general elections. Likewise in Maharashtra, the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won 30 of the State’s 48 seats from the State.
The ruling Mahayuti, a part of the NDA, bagged just 18 seats. The Congress emerged as the best-performing party with 13 seats.
The BJP, however, saw its tally dip from 23 in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to nine in 2024. In the Lok Sabha polls, the NDA secured 43.55 per cent of votes, while the MVA got 43.71 per cent.
In 2019, the NDA had won 43 of the 48 seats from Maharashtra while the then UPA had bagged the remaining five seats.
Though voters chose differently in the Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections, the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections will have a bearing on the upcoming State Assembly elections in these two States.
