BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday appointed former Gujarat home minister Gordhan Zadafia, once a bitter critic of Narendra Modi, as the Lok Sabha election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh.

There were similar appointments for 17 other states as the BJP sought to get a head start in poll preparedness.

But the most interesting appointment was that of Zadafia, the chief critic of Modi during his Gujarat days. Zadafia had publicly lashed out at Modi and even floated his own party. After he failed in his bid to take on Modi, Zadafia rejoined the BJP in 2014 and now has been rewarded with the task of handling the most crucial state for the BJP in 2019.

Interestingly, Shah had replaced Zadafia as home minister in Gujarat. Now, he has been given the task Shah had handled in 2014 as the election in-charge for the heartland state.

Zadafia, Dushyant Gautam, a fellow Gujarat leader and party vice-president, and Narottam Mishra from Madhya Pradesh have been tasked to handle Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 polls. The BJP, along with its allies, had won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2014 but is likely to face an uphill task from a prospective BSP-Samajwadi Party alliance this time.

Two Union ministers, Prakash Javadekar and Thawarchand Gehlot, have been given charge of Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, respectively.