Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was made in-charge of the Gujarat Assembly polls by BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday.
On the other hand, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar was given the responsibility of Karnataka.
Power Minister Piyush Goyal had been appointed co-incharge for Karnataka elections.
The term of the Gujarat Assembly comes to an end on January 22, 2018. The Karnataka assembly term ends on May 28, 2018.
On August 09, Shah had asked the party workers in the state to work towards achieving the target of winning 150 of the total 182 seats in Gujarat in the upcoming polls.
The BJP’s best performance was in 2002. It had won 127 seats.
The Congress has been out of power in Gujarat since 1995.
Meanwhile, on July 15, PTI had reported that Karnataka’s ruling Congress was conducting a survey to collect data to help it select candidates and decide strategy for the Assembly polls.
“The party is conducting divisional surveys and after these are complete, it will organise conferences in all the districts to inform people about the government’s achievements,” state party chief G Parameshwara, had said.
Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa had said in June that a survey would be conducted by an external agency for distribution of tickets for the 2018 Assembly polls.
On May 26, Shah had said that former Karnataka CM would be BJP’s chief ministerial face in the Assembly polls.
“It (Karnataka election) will be fought under Yeddyurappa,” the BJP chief had said.
Asked if it meant that Yeddyurappa will be the CM face, he had said, “He will be.”
The Karnataka unit of the saffron has been facing factional fight with a group headed by former deputy CM KS Eshwarappa targeting Yeddyurappa’s leadership.
Yeddyurappa (74), an influential Lingayat leader, had led the saffron party to its maiden victory in the southern state in 2008, but was forced to resign following charges of corruption against him.
He floated his own outfit in 2011. Though his party performed poorly in the 2013 Assembly polls, it managed to wean away a substantial chunk of the BJP votes, leading to a rout of the saffron party.
He returned to the BJP fold ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
