BJP gears up to elect Uttar Pradesh party chief; nominations on December 13, results a day later

New Delhi: The elections for the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit will be held over the weekend, bringing to end a longstanding organisational task for the party. The nominations for the president’s post will be filed on Saturday, and results are set to be declared on Sunday. The party is dispatching union commerce minister Piyush Goyal as well as general secretary Vinod Tawde to oversee the process.

A notice announcing the elections was put up at the party’s Lucknow office, and after nominations are filed and the scrutiny is done on Saturday, the name of the new president will be announced on Sunday. At the forefront of the race are leaders Pankaj Chaudhary, Swatantra Dev Singh, Keshav Prasad Maurya, BL Verma, Kanta Kardam, and Baburam Nishad, among others.

The party has over 2.5 crore active members in the state, and local committee elections have been completed. Of the 98 districts, presidents in 84 districts have been declared. From among the 403 assembly segments in the state, members for an electoral college have been elected from 327 seats. The electoral college votes for the president.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, both the Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, as well as prominent leaders of the state unit are likely to be the proposers for the nomination of the state president.

The BJP could also elect an OBC candidate ahead of next year’s Panchayat elections and the 2027 Assembly elections. This is also being seen within the party as a counter to the opposition’s PDA (Backward, Dalit, Minority) poll plank.

Outgoing state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. In 2024, after the BJP’s unimpressive results in the Lok Sabha elections, Chaudhary had filed his resignation.

The UP elections, largely seen as a precursor for the party’s organisational elections at the centre, also brings to an end a long-standing feud between different sections of the party’s state unit. The UP elections are also timed to take place before the inauspicious period of kharmas sets in.

The UP elections are also largely seen as a precursor to the election of the BJP’s national president, which is long overdue with current president JP Nadda’s extension period now equalling his tenure of three years. For the national elections to take place, state elections in 19 states need to be completed. The BJP has, however, completed elections in 29 states with UP going to be the 30th. The state is significant since PM Modi is MP from Varanasi.