Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh resigns; Dy CM Dinesh Sharma and former ministers top in the race

Lucknow: The state president of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Swatantra Dev Singh has finally resigned from his post. With this, rumors are on the rife as to whom the BJP would chose its next UP Chief. The next chief of UP BJP would also take the responsibility of leading the party in the 2024 parliament elections.

The outgoing state BJP Chief had intended to leave the post ever since he was made a minister in the Yogi cabinet in March this year and since then the party has not been able to find his substitute. Swatantra Dev Singh has completed his tenure of three years this week after which he has formally resigned from the post of UP Party Chief on Wednesday.

According to BJP insiders, the party has been weighing caste equations in finalizing the name of its next UP Chief. Among the leaders in the race are former Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, former minister Srikant Sharma, union minister BL Verma, Sanjeev Baliyan, Bhupendra Choudhury, MP Subrata Pathak, Sheela Gautam, Mahesh Sharma and member of legislative council Vidya Sagar Sonkar and Vijay Bahadur Pathak. However, the name of present Dy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has started doing the rounds after his recent meetings with national president JP Nadda and union home minister Amit Shah. Maurya had been UP BJP Chief in 2017 when party had outshined in the assembly polls. His being a powerful backward leader of BJP could help in 202r parliament elections. Since BJP have been performing well in the elections with support from backward communities, the claim of Maurya for the post seems strong. The senior leaders in BJP confide that almost 60 per cent of non-Yadav voters had supported party in 2022 assembly polls hence an OBC UP chief could be the best option for steering party in the 2024 parliament elections.

While a sections within BJP has been advocating for a Brahmin face as the state chief the others have been saying that with CM coming from upper caste the party should go for a backward face. After the desertion of Dalit votes from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the recently held assembly polls, the party is also giving a serious thought to giving this community a chance to head of the state unit. Among the dalit leaders of BJP in the race for the post are Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Ram Shankar Katheria, Braj Bahadur and Ramapati Shashtri.