Keshav Prasad Maurya, the Deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh, can be appointed as the President of state BJP again. In 2016, the party appointed Maurya as the state BJP president and under his leadership, the party delivered a spectacular victory under his leadership in the 2017 assembly election.
However, after he was appointed as the Deputy CM of the state, the post went to Mahendra Nath Pandey and in 2019, RSS functionary Swatantra Dev Singh was appointed as the state BJP President. But the party suffered a setback in the 2020 local elections (although local elections in BJP are not fought on party symbols but parties do extend their support to candidates) and now the senior leadership is looking to change the state functionaries.
Given Maurya’s track record in party and administration, his last successful stint, and stronghold among the OBC population, he is emerging as the top choice for the post of state BJP President. Mr Maurya belongs to the Kushwaha community, which is backward and agrarian. This will help the BJP, which is strong among the upper caste population, to make substantial inroads among the Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Most Backward Caste (MBC) populations. Both OBCs and MBCs do not vote in a block traditionally, so Maurya’s appointment is likely to reap benefits for the party, just like it did in the 2017 assembly election.
A.K. Sharma, a former Gujarat-cadre IAS officer and trusted aide of Prime Minister Modi who turned around the Covid situation in Banaras, the constituency of PM and a major city in Eastern UP, could be made the Deputy CM. A few months ago, Sharma was successfully nominated as MLC in the legislative council of Uttar Pradesh and soon after that, he was deployed to look after the Covid situation in Banaras, where he delivered a good result.
“There is discussion going on among the BJP brass to give Sharma a bigger responsibility in the state. The way Sharma worked in Varanasi since mid-April and managed to bring the Covid situation under control in the district is being talked about while discussing the overall situation in UP,” said a person.
The second Coronawave led to resentment among the people, not against the government or the Yogi Adityanath, but especially against the elected representatives. A good number of MLAs could lose tickets this time and fresh candidates can be announced for the 2022 assembly election.
“There is a lot of resentment among the people about how the elected representatives were nowhere to be seen when the pandemic was raging and people were dying because of shortage of beds and oxygen,” said another person.
The people of the state still trust the leadership of Prime Minister Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath has goodwill, and the party would try to capitalize on that in the 2022 assembly election. The MLAs, who did not reach constituents amid the times of crisis, would definitely be replaced. BJP has already set the motion for the election in the most populous state of the country that is expected in February next year.
