Lucknow: More than three months after the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the two national parties Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not find a suitable person to head the organization in the state. While the Congress UP chief Ajay Kumar Lallu had resigned after dismal performance of party in assembly polls, the BJP’s state president Swatantra Deo Singh was made minister in the Yogi cabinet. Since March, this year both the national parties have been looking for a suitable candidate and search is still going on.
According to senior BJP leaders in UP, the name of state chief could be out soon after the meeting of party’s national executive in Telangana is over. At present, the national executive of BJP is meeting in Hyderabad to discuss organizational issues. The front-runners for the UP chief post in BJP are Brahmin faces such as Kannauj MP Subrata Pathak, Noida MP Mahesh Sharma and Aligarh MP Satish Gautam.
Apart from these names, former Deputy Chief Minister of UP Dr Dinesh Sharma and former cabinet minister Srikant Sharma also figure in the list of probable. Keeping in mind the forthcoming parliament elections, the party wants to have a Brahmin state president in UP since the government is being headed by Kshatriya face Yogi Adityanath. Recently the BJP’s organizational in charge of UP BL Santosh, Sunil Bansal and others had a marathon meeting with CM Yogi and both the Dy CMs over the name of state party chief.
Unlike BJP where there are many contenders for the state chief, the Congress is facing the crisis of leaders who are ready to take the responsibility. Insiders in the party confided that despite sending three leaders from UP to Rajya Sabha recently none is ready to take the responsibility of heading state organization.
Senior UP Congress leaders Pramod Tiwari, Rajiv Shukla and Imran Pratapgarhi have recently been elected for Rajya Sabha. The national general secretary and in charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi who was very active in the state till assembly polls, has visited only once in the last three months. According to senior Congress leaders, former MP PL Punia, Brij Lal Khabri and Rajesh Mishra are among the front-runners for the post. However, the party might surprise by selecting a young face to head UP organization.
