LUCKNOW: With the organisational reshuffle in the Uttar Pradesh BJP now complete down to the district level, the ruling party is set to appoint a new state unit chief who will lead it into the 2027 assembly elections.The selection process presents a dilemma, as the party must counter the opposition’s caste mobilisation strategy, particularly the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) PDA (Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) narrative. According to party insiders, caste will play a crucial role in the appointment, and the BJP may opt for a Dalit leader.Senior BJP leaders in UP acknowledge the impact of caste-based voter mobilisation in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and are considering a Dalit leader to consolidate their vote bank. The party aims to attract Dalit voters who have drifted away from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) after its successive electoral setbacks since 2012.A senior BJP leader said, “In 2017 and 2022, the BJP secured a significant share of Dalit votes. Appointing a Dalit leader as the UP BJP chief for the first time may help shift a section of the BSP vote bank towards the party, It may also help the party to counter the Opposition’s propaganda about the BJP being anti-Ambedkar and anti-Dalit.” Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Ram Shankar Katheria, and Jugul Kishore are among the names being discussed for the UP BJP chief post.However, the party cannot overlook the OBC vote base, which played a crucial role in the BJP’s landslide victory in 2017 and its return to power in 2022. Non-Yadav OBCs, who largely backed the BJP against the Yadav-dominated Samajwadi Party (SP), were instrumental in these wins.Amar Pal Maurya, BL Verma, and Dharam Pal Singh, a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, are some of the OBC leaders being considered for the top organisational post.If the party decides to go with an upper-caste leader, Harish Dwivedi, Dinesh Sharma, and Govind Narayan Shukla are among the frontrunners.
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