New minister Alphons is BJP's election in-charge of Meghalaya

After his minister's status, the BJP has handed over Meghalaya to KJ Alphons to supervise next year's polls for 60 assembly seats.

BJP president Amit Shah's decision to appoint Alphons, a former IAS officer of Kerala, to look after the election to one of the north-eastern states comes two days after he took a meeting of the core group leaders to give a shape to its electoral strategy.  The BJP is planning to contest on all the assembly seats.

For the 1979 batch retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who became minister of state for tourism during Sunday's cabinet reshuffle, this would be his maiden opportunity to manage polls of a state. Till now he has merely contested assembly elections. Prior to joining the BJP in 2011, he had won Kanjirappally assembly seat in Kottayam district in 2006 with the support of CPM.

By giving the mantle to Alphons, a Christian, the BJP believes it will be easier for the minister to connect with the people of Meghalaya. Christians account for 83 percent of the total population of the state which is about 2.7 million. 

Shah is also planning to visit Meghalaya as the party is keen to put its best foot forward in the three poll bound north-east states of  Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya. The BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) is already ruling five of the eight NE states -- Manipur, Sikkim, Assam,  Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.