The BJP has overhauled its state-level organisational leadership, naming new in-charges and co-in-charges for nearly every state and union territory. The list was released by national president Nitin Nabin and takes effect immediately. General secretary Sunil Bansal will oversee Telangana and continue to hold charge of West Bengal, with Abhay Patil and Rekha Sharma named as his co-in-charges in Telangana. In Andhra Pradesh, Arvind Bhadauria becomes state in-charge with Tamil Nadu BJP leader Vanathi Srinivasan as co-in-charge.
Ram Madhav has been assigned Tamil Nadu along with Uttarakhand, while Harish Dwivedi will handle both Karnataka and Bihar. Prof M Nagaraja takes charge of Kerala and former Kerala BJP president K Surendran has been given Puducherry. Elsewhere, Smriti Irani will steer Haryana and Chhattisgarh, Vinod Tawde gets Uttar Pradesh and Baijayant Panda has been named for Maharashtra. Biplab Kumar Deb will look after Madhya Pradesh and Satish Poonia gets Jammu and Kashmir as well as Punjab.
The party also named Ashish Usha Agrawal as media department convenor and Anil Baluni as communication coordinator. The southern assignments are significant because the BJP remains a marginal force in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and is trying to expand in Telangana. The party said the reshuffle is meant to strengthen its organisational network ahead of upcoming electoral and organisational programmes.