NE NEWS SERVICE
LUCKNOW, JUNE 19
After days of speculation over his placement in the Uttar Pradesh government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trusted aide AK Sharma has been appointed as the new UP BJP Vice-President. The name of the retired bureaucrat who is also a BJP MLC from Mau, had been doing the rounds in the political corridors of Uttar Pradesh along with speculations over a possible cabinet reshuffle ahead of 2022 state assembly polls.
UP BJP Chief Swatantra Dev Singh on Saturday announced Sharma’s appointment as the new UP BJP Vice-President along with Archana Mishra and Amit Valmiki being appointed as ministers (organization) for Lucknow, Bulandshahr, respectively.
A Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Sharma joined the BJP in January this year after taking voluntary retirement from the service. Sharma, a 1988 batch officer from Mau district in Uttar Pradesh, is considered close to PM Modi and has worked with him in Gujarat. Sharma joined the party in the presence of state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma at the party headquarters in Lucknow.
Sharma’s announcement comes a day after UP BJP Chief Swatantra Dev Singh went to Delhi and met some senior leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Meanwhile, the national general secretary (organization) Minister BL Santosh is once again expected to be in Lucknow on June 21 and 22 for some key meetings. As per information, during his second visit to Lucknow in a month’s time, Santosh will decide the strategy for the 2022 elections along with the ministers of the government and the office-bearers of the organization.
