Nabin taps Tawde for UP, Poonia for Punjab ahead of 2027 polls

Gearing up for the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat next year, BJP president Nitin Nabin on Tuesday made organisational appointments across key States units of the party. Rajya Sabha MP and party national general secretary, Vinod Tawde and has been appointed in-charge of UP and newly appointed BJP national secretary, Jagdish Ishwarbhai Patel as co-in-charge.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP Satish Poonia has been given charge of Punjab, and Tarun Chugh will be responsible for Gujarat, a BJP press release on Tuesday said. All three leaders are known more for organisation work than headline-grabbing politics. The message from the party is clear: the road to 2029 begins with the 2027 State elections. While the Assembly elections in Punjab and UP are due early next year, Gujarat will go to polls later in 2027.

Tawde’s appointment is also being seen as an attempt to strengthen the BJP’s organisational machinery in the UP where the party hopes to score a third

straight term. After Sunil Bansal’s departure, the party lacked a similarly prominent organisational hand on the ground. Former Union minister Radha Mohan Singh had been the State in-charge, but the post had effectively remained without a strong full-time organisational face.

Tawde is known within the BJP for his ability to work across factions. Party leaders see him as someone who can listen to different groups and keep internal rivalries from spilling over. In recent years, he has played important roles in Bihar and Kerala and has increasingly been involved in party’s organisational affairs in UP. Tawde was appointed BJP in-charge of Bihar in 2022 and emerged as a key strategist there. He quietly guided the party’s campaign. He was also the NDA’s election in-charge for Droupadi Murmu’s 2022 presidential campaign. He coordinated with parties and allies across States, helping build support for Murmu’s candidature. In 2025, he was given a similar role for NDA vice-presidential candidate CP Radhakrishnan, again tasked with coordinating alliance partners. His appointment is expected to bring greater coordination between the BJP brass and the UP Government while helping the party tackle factionalism ahead of the 2027 polls.

While the BJP remains the dominant force in UP, the 2024 Lok Sabha election exposed vulnerabilities in several regions and social groups The party failed to secure a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha for the first time since 2014. Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats and 403 Assembly constituencies, making it a political heavy-weight and a key gateway to power in New Delhi.

The party is now looking to regain lost ground before the 2027 Assembly contest. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday congratulated Tawde and Patel on being made the in-charge and co-in-charge, respectively, of party affairs in the State.

Poonia has been appointed as in-charge of Punjab, where the party did not have an in-charge following the death of former Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani in the Air India Flight 171 crash on June 12, 2025.

Poonia had earlier been appointed the BJP's State in-charge for Haryana ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections. He has now been given charge of Punjab before its polls. The BJP has been trying to repair its political equations in Punjab since the farmers’ protests. Poonia’s appointment is therefore also being viewed as an attempt to address the discontent among farmers. Poonia has already been involved in efforts to strengthen the BJP’s Punjab unit and was seen as a key figure in the restructuring of the State organisation.

Punjab has 117 Assembly seats, with elections likely to be held in February next year. The appointments came a day after the party unveiled a new team of national office-bearers to assist Nabin. The party named 13 vice-presidents, including nine new faces; eight general secretaries, six of them first-time appointees, and 16 secretaries, 15 of whom are new.