BJP reshuffles state and communications leadership

The Bharatiya Janata Party announced an organisational reshuffle on September 23, appointing in-charges and co-in-charges for all 28 states and eight Union Territories and changing leadership of its communications and media departments. The party said the appointments take effect immediately. The assignments include Vinod Tawde as Uttar Pradesh in-charge; Smriti Irani for Haryana and Chhattisgarh; Ram Madhav for Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand; and Satish Poonia for Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Sunil Bansal was named in-charge of West Bengal and Telangana, while Harish Dwivedi was assigned Bihar and Karnataka. Baijayant Jay Panda was named Maharashtra in-charge, and Tarun Chugh Gujarat in-charge. The party also appointed Anil Baluni coordinator of its communications department, which includes its media and social media units. Ashish Usha Agrawal was named convenor of the national media department. The appointments were announced by BJP president Nitin Nabin in a party notification, according to reports describing the announcement. Other assignments include Vinay Sahasrabuddhe for Delhi, D. Purandeshwari for Odisha and Biplab Kumar Deb for Madhya Pradesh.