BJP’s New National Team: 8 UP Leaders Get Key Posts Ahead Of 2027 Assembly Elections

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has secured a sizeable presence in BJP president Nitin Nabin’s new national team, with eight leaders from the state finding places in key organisational positions, including two national vice presidents, two general secretaries, two national secretaries and the presidents of the party’s OBC and Minority Morchas.

About The New Composition

The composition gives Uttar Pradesh representation across several layers of the BJP’s national organisation. More significantly, the party has retained its focus on social and community outreach by handing the national presidentship of both the OBC Morcha and Minority Morcha to leaders from the state.

Senior party leader Amar Pal Maurya has been appointed national president of the OBC Morcha, while Kunwar Basit Ali, who was state chief of Minority Morcha, has been made national president of the Minority Morcha.

The other prominent UP faces in the new team include former Union minister Smriti Irani and former MP Harish Dwivedi, both of whom have been appointed national general secretaries.

Irani, who represented Amethi in the Lok Sabha from 2019 to 2024, had emerged as one of the BJP’s most prominent national leaders during her tenure as a Union minister. Her appointment as national general secretary gives her a direct organisational role at a time when the BJP is preparing for another round of electoral battles in the politically crucial Hindi heartland.

Harish Dwivedi, a former BJP MP from Basti, has also been elevated to the post of national general secretary.

The state has also got two national vice presidents in Rekha Verma and Prof. Tariq Mansoor. Verma, a former BJP MP from Dhaurahra, has been retained in a senior national organisational role. Mansoor, former vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and a member of the BJP’s national leadership, has also been appointed national vice president.

Mansoor’s appointment assumes importance in the context of the BJP’s continuing efforts to expand its outreach among Muslims. His presence in the national team, alongside Basit Ali’s appointment as Minority Morcha president, gives UP two senior organisational faces associated with the party’s minority outreach.

Two more UP leaders, Dr. Bhola Singh and Sangeeta Yadav, have been appointed national secretaries. This takes the number of leaders from Uttar Pradesh in the core national office-bearer structure to six, before counting the two morcha presidents.

The appointment of Amar Pal Maurya as OBC Morcha president is particularly relevant given the BJP’s emphasis on maintaining its non-Yadav OBC support base in Uttar Pradesh. Maurya, who has held organisational and governmental responsibilities in the state, has been associated with the BJP’s backward caste outreach.

With the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election approaching, the composition of the national team is likely to be closely watched in the state. The presence of eight UP leaders in the national organisation suggests that the BJP intends to keep the state firmly integrated into its national organisational strategy while giving particular emphasis to caste and community-based outreach.