LUCKNOW: After Uttar Pradesh BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh joined the Yogi Adityanath cabinet 2.0, the party is on the lookout for a new face to take up the mantle. Around half a dozen names are doing the rounds and a final decision is expected this month itself as the saffron party’s bylaws favour ‘one man one post’.
Sources said senior BJP leaders feel that since all major castes have been given representation in the cabinet or party organisation, it is not necessary to factor in caste in choosing the new UP BJP president.
The sources claimed that keeping all factors in mind, the new chief could be a pick from the organisation and the names of party vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak, UP BJP general secretaries Ashwini Tyagi and Amarpal Maurya are doing the rounds. From outside the organisation, MLC Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Basti MP Harish Dwivedi, Union ministers BL Varma and Bhanu Pratap Varma, and Kannauj MP Subrata Pathak are the probables.
Besides the state president post, many other slots also need to be filled as a number of leaders in the party hierarchy have joined the state cabinet. It is likely that a number of senior leaders, who failed to get a
cabinet berth, will be given party positions.
The other positions lying vacant in the party will be filled after the state chief is appointed. Three vice president posts — occupied by Daya Shankar Singh, AK Sharma and JPS Rathore — need to be filled as the three have joined the cabinet. In 2016, in a bid to woo non-Yadav OBCs to the party’s fold, the BJP central leadership had appointed Keshav Prasad Maurya as state unit chief.
Maurya’s appointment brought dividends to the party as it won the 2017 Assembly polls with a mammoth majority securing a record 325 seats. Maurya was succeeded by Mahendra Nath Pandeym, a Brahmin. With CM Adityanath being a Thakur, the new Brahmin-Thakur combination helped the party win 64 out of 80 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Pandey later joined the Modi cabinet and Swatantra Dev Singh, an OBC, was anointed state BJP chief. Singh was the state transport minister when he was entrusted with the responsibility of the party in the state. BJP fought the tough 2022 battle under Adityanath and Singh.
Several names doing the rounds, nothing concrete yet
Sources claimed that keeping all factors in mind, the new chief could be a pick from the organisation and the names of party vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak, UP BJP general secretaries Ashwini Tyagi and Amarpal Maurya are doing the rounds. From outside the organisation, MLC Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Basti MP Harish Dwivedi, Union ministers BL Varma and Bhanu Pratap Varma are among the probables.