The Bharatiya Janata Party has sounded the election bugle for the upcoming state assembly elections and announced in-charges for the elections in Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh on 7 July.
Pralhad Joshi, the minister for Union Parliamentary Affairs is appointed in charge of Rajasthan with Nitin Patel, ex-deputy chief minister of Gujarat and Kuldeep Bishnoi, former two-term member of the Lok Sabha from Haryana, serving as co-in charge.
Veteran BJP politician from Rajasthan Om Prakash Mathur is set to lead the party’s election campaign in Chhattisgarh alongside Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who has been named as co-incharge.
Elections in Madhya Pradesh, where Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has held office four times since 2005, are scheduled to be overseen by Union Environment and Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav, with Union Railway and Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw acting as the co-incharge.
Former minister of information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar will take charge of the BJP’s electoral efforts in Telangana, aided by co-incharge Sunil Bansal, the national general secretary. The notification announcing the in-charges for the state elections was issued by the National General Secretary and Head Quarters Incharge Arun Singh.
भाजपा राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @JPNadda ने आगामी विधानसभा चुनाव – राजस्थान, छत्तीसगढ़, मध्य प्रदेश एवं तेलंगाना के लिए प्रदेश चुनाव प्रभारी एवं सह-चुनाव प्रभारियों की नियुक्तियां की। pic.twitter.com/d3l1ctNcVZ
— BJP (@BJP4India) July 7, 2023
The party wants to topple the Congress-led government of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, where it is customary to switch governments every five years.
It also seeks to oust the anti-incumbency in Madhya Pradesh, take on the incumbent Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel who heads the Congress government in Chhattisgarh and try to win as many votes against the ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana.
The departure of Jyotiraditya Scindia, a key member of the Madhya Pradesh Congress at the time, from the party helped the BJP in Madhya Pradesh form the government under Shivraj Singh Chouhan in March 2020. The former had 22 rebel MLAs when he joined the party.
He was given a position in government in July 2021 when there was only one cabinet reshuffle under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term. He is presently the minister of civil aviation.
With 114 votes, the Congress formed the government in Madhya Pradesh in 2018 with the assistance of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and several Independents. However, in 2020, Jyotiraditya Scindia-led defections caused the government to become unstable.
Notably, Mizoram is also expected to hold elections this year.
