Pankaj Chaudhary
Credit: X/@mppchaudhary
Lucknow: In an apparent bid to counter rival Samajwadi Party’s (SP) PDA (pichda, dalit, alpsankhyak) formula, which had brought it (SP) considerable success in the state in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has appointed influential OBC leader and union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary as its Uttar Pradesh unit chief.
Chaudhary, a seven-time MP, who hails from the electorally influential ‘kurmi’ community, filed his nomination paper for the state party president’s post here on Saturday. Chaudhary’s election to the post of the state president became a certainty after no other nomination papers were filed for the post.
Union minister Piyush Goyal would formally announce Chaudhary’s name as the new state party chief on Sunday, according to the BJP sources here.
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak and former union minister Smriti Irani were among Chaudhary’s proposers.
BJP sources said that Chaudhary, being a member of the ‘kurmi’ community, which was in sizable numbers in several eastern UP districts, could counter SP’s ‘PDA’ formula, especially in the ‘Poorvanchal’ region in the state. Assembly elections in the state are due in 2027.
BJP’s tally in the state in the 2024 LS polls declined to 33 from 62 in the 2019 LS elections. The SP, which could win only five seats in 2019 LS polls, managed to win 37 seats. SP nominees fared well in several OC dominated seats in the eastern UP region. The success of the party was then attributed to the PDA formula.
Chaudhary hails from Maharajganj district, which was not very far from Gorakhpur, the home town of Adityanath.
Incidentally, BJP’s alliance partner in UP, the Apna Dal (AD), was also a predominantly a ‘kurmi’ outfit and had pockets of influence in the eastern UP districts of Varanasi, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Kaushambi and some others.