UP BJP chief breakthrough soon, choice narrows down to Dalit, OBC or Brahmin
As per sources, the frontrunners are an MLC and former MP from eastern UP who is a Dalit leader, a senior Brahmin office-bearer from the Gandhi family pocketborough of Amethi, and a Rajya Sabha MP and Nishad face.
Those pushing for a Dalit leader see it as a way to arrest the shift to the Samajwadi Party (SP) shown by the community in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when the Opposition successfully built a narrative that a powerful BJP government may change the Constitution. A leader pointed to the drop in the BJP's Lok Sabha tally in UP from 2019's 62 to 33 — a big factor in the party falling short of a majority at the Centre.
The BJP leaders who want to see a Brahmin at the top believe the party needs to win back a community that has been loyal to it. A party leader said Brahmins now feel 'sidelined' in the party. Of the 15 BJP UP presidents since it was formed in 1980, seven have been Brahmins, including Madhav Prasad Tripathi, Kalraj Mishra, Kesari Nath Tripathi, Rama Ram Pati Tripathi, Laxmi Kant Bajpai and Mahendra Nath Pandey.
The argument for picking an MBC leader is that it is the safest choice, given that the BJP has been steadily building its base among the larger OBC group. The party's current state chief, Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, is Jat and headed the party during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Earlier, a Kurmi leader, Swantantra Dev Singh, headed the BJP, when it won the 2022 Assembly elections in the state.
Before that, in 2017, the BJP came to power in UP under Keshav Prasad Maurya, another OBC leader, as state chief. After Maurya was made the Deputy Chief Minister, Mahendra Nath Pandey took over as president, in a balancing of the caste equations.
Right now, in Yogi Adityanath, the BJP has a Thakur as CM, which means the state president is unlikely to be a Rajput.
The election of state BJP chiefs is one of the first steps towards the selection of the new national party president of the party. The BJP has so far announced new party chiefs for 15 of its 37 state units across the country. A new national party president can be picked once at least 19 state chiefs are elected. Apart from UP, the presidents of other key state units such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka are also yet to be elected.
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