BJP names 48 in charge for Lok Sabha poll preparations

Nagpur: The BJP has officially started election preparations for next year’s Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The party’s state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Thursday appointed office-bearers in charge of 48 Lok Sabha and 288 assembly constituencies in the state.
Sources said those appointed would not be allowed to contest the polls, but they would be granted equal weightage as of the candidate in the hierarchy.
City president Pravin Datke was appointed as in-charge for the Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency while party district chief Arvind Gajbhiye would look after the Ramtek seat. D deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s officer on special duty (OSD) Sumit Wankhede was appointed as in charge for Wardha Lok Sabha constituency. From Akola, MP Sanjay Dhotre’s son Anup was entrusted with the responsibility to ensure a fifth consecutive win for his father.
“Our job would be to strengthen the party’s organisational set up. We will give special attention to the weak areas and work there. We will devise strategy for the polls and would be responsible for campaigning,” former MLC Girish Vyas, who was given charge of North Nagpur constituency, where the party had lost to Congress Nitin Raut in 2019 polls, told TOI.
Datke said he would look after overall election management of Union minister Nitin Gadkari’s constituency and his role would have multiple assignments, including political management, booth arrangements, and publicity among others.
“It’s now two to three months possibly for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) polls, after which there will be Lok Sabha elections in April-May, followed by the assembly polls. So, the party has started early. For the constituencies like North Nagpur and West Nagpur, where we lost in 2019, we have deputed senior and experienced leaders like Girish Vyas and Sandeep Jadhav,” he told TOI.
Wankhede, who is the young face among in charges, was entrusted with the big responsibility of Wardha constituency comprising 12 towns. He is perhaps the only non-political and relatively inexperienced face among all the in charges.
“We will oversee organisational planning and election related programmes in all 12 talukas. We will reach out to the people with various welfare schemes,” he said.