New Delhi
The BJP today set the ball rolling for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, appointing election in-charge for Chandigarh and 17 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

Haryana Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu has been give the charge for Chandigarh as well as Punjab where the BJP usually contests three of 13 seats, leaving the rest for SAD.

Union Minister Thawarchand Gehlot will oversee party’s preparations in Uttarakhand which has five LS seats while seasoned leader Tirth Singh Rawat will take care of HP’s four constituencies.

For Uttar Pradesh, which sends as many 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and where regional parties such as Mayawati-led BSP and Akhilesh Yadav’s SP pose a serious challenge to BJP’s prospects, party president Amit Shah has picked his three key men Gujarat leader Govardhan Jhadapia, party vice-president Dushyant Gautam and former Cabinet Minister from Madhya Pradesh Narottam Mishra.

In the three states of the Hindi heartland the BJP lost to the Congress, Shah has appointed Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and Sudhanshu Trivedi for Rajasthan , UP minister Sawantra Dev Singh and Delhi leader Satish Upadhyay for Madhya Pradesh and Haryana leader and general secretary Anil Jain for Chhattisgarh .

Senior party leader Om Prakash Mathur has been given the charge for Gujarat and Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan and party secretary Deodhar Rao of Andhra Pradesh.