BJP looks for new UP chief, bets are on ‘OBC leader from eastern UP’

The BJP is also keen on balancing caste and regional equations while picking its next state president, especially as the person in charge will lead them in the 2027 Assembly polls.

Elaborating on the BJP’s focus on eastern Uttar Pradesh, an RSS functionary said choosing a leader from the region may help stem the losses the party faced there in last year’s Lok Sabha polls. Of the 24 seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the SP won 14, while the BJP and its ally, the Apna Dal (Soneylal) won 10.

At present, the BJP relies on its allies Apna Dal (S), NISHAD Party, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to garner the OBC votes. The RLD is seen to be influential among Jats in western UP, while the Apna Dal (S) enjoys the support of Kurmi voters. The SBSP is seen to have a strong presence among the Rajbhar, Maurya, and Kushwaha communities, and the NISHAD Party is influential among the Nishads, the community of boatmen and fisherfolk.

With the appointment of 70 of the BJP’s 98 district and city unit chiefs, the decks are now clear for the party to appoint the state president. The party was scheduled to make the announcement last month, but the process was deferred as the requisite number of district and city unit chiefs were not appointed. The party Constitution mandates that the state chief be chosen only after half the number of district and city units are appointed.

The BJP has previously appointed leaders such as Surya Pratap Shahi and Ramapati Ram Tripathi from eastern Uttar Pradesh as its UP president, but they have been from the upper castes.

The current UP BJP president is Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, a Jat leader from the western part of the state who was appointed in August 2022. He had replaced Swatantra Dev Singh, a leader from the influential Kurmi community.

Who are the likely contenders?

While Singh is also said to be one of the contenders for the job, other OBC leaders who are in the running are state minister Dharmpal Singh, Union Minister of State B L Verma, and Rajya Sabha MP Baburam Nishad, party insiders said.

Both Dharmpal and Verma hail from the Lodh OBC community, which is influential in the Bundelkhand and Rohilkhand regions of the state. Seen as traditional BJP voters, the Lodhs are said to have grown closer to the party due to former CM Kalyan Singh, who was the party’s tallest OBC leader in the state.

Some in the party said it was not a foregone conclusion that an OBC leader would be made the state chief. According to them, the party is also looking at Dalit faces such as former MPs Ram Shankar Katheria, Vinod Sonkar and Neelam Sonkar, and ex-MLC Vidya Sagar Sonkar.

Though the names of Rajya Sabha MP Dinesh Sharma and former MP Harish Dwivedi, both Brahmins, are also doing the rounds in some circles, a BJP leader said it was unlikely that the party would pick them given the current political scenario. “The CM (Yogi Adityanath) is from the upper caste (Thakur) and the party needs a leader who represents the majority of the state’s population,” said the BJP functionary.

Explaining the delay in the process, state BJP spokesperson Avneesh Tyagi said the party had a democratic system of electing its state presidents. “Sentiments of party workers are also considered in the process. The state president will be chosen soon,” he said.