The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh has set the balls rolling for the crucial 2022 assembly polls with the announcement of a strong 14-member team of senior leaders led by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan to retain power in the most politically sensitive state.

The team has seven joint in-charges along with six in-charges of respective regions, a BJP press release said here on Wednesday.

Union Minister for Education and Skill Development Dharmendra Pradhan will be the overall in-charge and he will be assisted by Union Information and Youth Affairs Minister Anurag Thakur, Union Parliamentary Affairs, Tourism and Culture Minister Arjun Medhwal, Rajya Sabha member Saroj Pandey, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shobha Kardlaje, former Haryana minister Captain Abhimanyu, Union Minister of State for Education Anpurna Devi and Rajya Sabha member Vivek Thakur.

Similarly, the party has announced in-charges of six regions too. MP Sanjay Bhatia will be the in-charge of western UP, Bihar MLA Sanjeev Chaurasia of Braj region, BJP national secretary Y Satya Kumar of Awadh region, national joint treasurer Sudhir Gupta of Kanpur region, national secretary Arvind Mohan while Sunil Ojha will be joint in-charge of Kashi region.

The new team has fixed a target to win over 300 seats in the 2022 elections like the 2017 polls. The BJP has already announced to go to the polls projecting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as the next chief ministerial face.

In the 2017 assembly polls, senior BJP leader from Rajasthan, Om Prakash Mathura, was in-charge and he was assisted by several senior leaders, including Piyush Goyal and others.

In 2017, BJP won 315 seats to get absolute majority in the 403-member UP Vidhan Sabha.

However, suspense still persists about the fate of present UP in-charge and party general secretary Radha Mohan Singh whether he will work under Dharmendra Pradhan or will continue to work independently.