With elections looming in Maharashtra, the BJP has appointed Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav as its chief.

The BJP on Monday appointed Union Minister Bhupender Yadav as its election chief for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav will be its joint chief executive in the western state, where the Bharatiya Janata Party failed to live up to expectations in the last Lok Sabha elections. It won nine of the 28 seats it contested as leader of the National Democratic Alliance.

According to a statement issued by the BJP, national president JP Nadda also announced the election chiefs and co-chiefs for the other polling states of Jharkhand, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will oversee the Jharkhand elections along with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be the chief for Haryana, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb will be the co-chief and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy will be the sole chief for Jammu and Kashmir.

State assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand are scheduled for later this year, but the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India to hold elections in Jharkhand and Kashmir by September.

Focus on Maharashtra

The Maharashtra elections will be crucial for the ruling BJP-led NDA, known locally as the Mahayuti, which suffered a heavy defeat and is looking to regain lost ground. The NDA will once again face off against the Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Indian National Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

Since the Lok Sabha election results revealed infighting, there has been much speculation about the unity of the ruling coalition ahead of state elections. Some within Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena party have blamed the BJP for the ruling party’s defeat, but the party’s top leadership has insisted the coalition remains intact.

There has also been some internal discord and outright threats surfacing within the NCP over outstanding issues such as cabinet expansion and the nomination of Rajya Sabha members, with reports of unhappiness over the nomination of Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, to fill a vacant Rajya Sabha seat. She lost the Lok Sabha election to her sister-in-law Supriya Sule in Baramati constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) top brass have held a series of meetings with party leaders in the days following the results of the Lok Sabha elections. Indeed, Deputy Chief Executive Devendra Fadnavis has also offered to resign from his party post and run within the party for the upcoming elections.

(with PTI input)