Pankaj Chaudhary.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Pankaj Chaudhury, BJP’s newly appointed president of the Uttar Pradesh state unit, has started preparations for the 2027 Assembly elections.
He began with an address to party workers in the Mathura region last week.
Terming it "Mission 2027", Chaudhary called for the workers to break the records of the 2017 election.
Chaudhary started the Yatra on Saturday by visiting Mathura, after which he proceeded to the Braj region, where he attended a wedding in Agra.
On Sunday, he went to Meerut, where, he was welcomed by the Muslims of the region.
Kunwar Basit Ali, the state unit’s minority chief, said that the Poorvanchal region may be easy for the BJP but the West could prove to be tough.
“The region has Muslims in large numbers and there is a significant presence of Yadavs. This means that we have to work doubly hard in Western UP,” Basit said.
Another leader said that the route was made keeping this factor in mind. “He visited Banke Bihari in Mathura and started the UP yatra from the Braj region and reached Meerut via Ghaziabad on the second day, where he was given a grand welcome. In a way, Pankaj Chaudhary has started the exercise of connecting from East to West UP,” a senior leader of the party said.
The reason, sources said, is that while the party leadership sought to find a balance in caste equations by appointing Pankaj to the top job, the fact that both him and Yogi Adityanath are from Gorakhpur has not helped matters as Poorvanchal is now seen as a power centre.
PM Modi's parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, also falls in Poorvanchal, while Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is from Prayagraj in the same region.
Basit said Chaudhary’s experience will be helpful.
“He’s a seven time lawmaker and has won several elections. This makes him experienced in elections. He’s also an organisational man, and so, has that rare combination,” he added.