In the run up to the Assembly polls in three States, BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday appointed Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as party’s election in-charge of Gujarat while allotting the responsibility of Karnataka to HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and that of Himachal Pradesh to Minister for social justice Thawar Chand Gehlot.
In Gujarat, Jaitley will be assisted by three other Central Ministers — Rural development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of State for the Development of North Eastern Region, (Prime Minister Office) Jitendra Singh and Minister of State for law and justice PP Choudhary. Javadekar, the election-in-charge of Karnataka, will be backed by Power Minister Piyush Goyal.
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are expected to go to polls later this year. Elections in Karnataka are to be held in 2018 as its term ends on May 28, 2018. The term of the Gujarat Assembly comes to an end on January 22, 2018. Himachal Pradesh assembly tenure comes to an end on January 7, 2018.
BJP is confident of winning Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and believes that it would fight out Congress in Karnataka on an even keel and even gain advantage of anti-incumbency against the ruling dispensation to form its Government there. Karnataka has been the first Southern post that was won by the BJP from the Congress in 2008.
In Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is leading the Congress charge against the BJP, which has made it clear that its State president and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa will be its chief ministerial face. Siddaramaiah has expressed confidence that he will retain power.
The incumbent Chief Minister Vijay Ramniklal Rupani is again expected to be the CM face in Gujarat while BJP is yet to decide whether to project a CM candidate in Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP President on Thursday also chaired a meeting of Central Ministers and party office bearers to detail the programmes in the run up to the birth anniversary of party’s ideologue Deen Dayal Upadhyay that falls on September 25. Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Minister of State for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey and Culture and Tourism Minster Mahesh Sharma attended the meet. From the BJP’s side, General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe and General Secretary (Org) Ram lal also attended the meet.
Important organizational issues were also deliberated in the meeting. In the run up to the assembly polls and lok Sabha elections which are less than two years away, the Government and party level meetings have increased in the recent weeks. last week Prime Minister interacted with 13 BJP Chief Ministers and six deputy-Chief Ministers to review implementations of welfare programmes and poll preparations and a few days before that a number of senior central ministers had a three-hour discussions at the party headquarters with all the BJP’s General Secretaries to step up communication at the ground level.
The party president has sought all party leaders to keep their powder dry in view of the successive assembly polls in coming years and lok Sabha polls in 2019. Elections are due in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Tripura.