PM Modi's trusted hand former IAS officer AK Sharma appointed as BJP's UP vice president

BJP appoints former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre AK Sharma who joined BJP in January this year as UP BJP Vice President. Sharma is among the trusted hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and had worked with him in Gujarat.

Earlier, speculations were rife that Sharma could be inducted into the UP government in a possible Cabinet expansion or reshuffle ahead of next year's Assembly elections.

Sharma was entrusted with Covid management in Varanasi, PM Modi's parliamentary constituency and the bureaucrat was has been credited with making Varanasi a comparatively a safer place in Uttar Pradesh, a state where COVID wreaked havoc and there were plenty of reports of mismanagement.

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.

Besides Sharma, the saffron party also declared the candidatures of Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and state BJP vice-president Laxman Acharya.

The elections for the 12 MLC seats will be held on January 28. The nomination process has already started. The 12 outgoing MLCs include Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Prasad Acharya.