BJP Internal Polls: In the last few days, the top BJP leadership has been holding crucial late-night meetings with regard to the party’s affairs and appointments. One such important meeting was held on Wednesday in Delhi regarding the party’s organisational elections, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting, held at the Prime Minister’s residence, was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP’s National General Secretary (Organisation), BL Santosh.
Discussions centred around the upcoming election for the BJP’s National President. According to party sources, the announcement regarding the election could be made within a week. In addition to deliberating on the national leadership, the meeting also focused on organisational changes at the state level. The leaders also discussed the names of new state BJP presidents for states like Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh were discussed. The party may announce around half a dozen state unit presidents in the next two to three days. The organisational reshuffle is expected to have a significant impact on the BJP’s electoral strategy ahead of upcoming polls.
According to reports, the election process for choosing the BJP’s national president could begin any time after April 20. While the party is looking for a competent leader who can fill in the shoes of JP Nadda and Amit Shah, speculations are rife around K Annamalai’s name as he can be given a national role. If not the party president, then Annamalai can be made the party’s national office bearer.
Focus On Uttar Pradesh Party Chief
With an upper caste CM in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is looking for an OBC face to replace the current state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, a Jat leader from the western UP. Chaudhary replaced Swatantra Dev Singh, a leader from the Kurmi community. With the opposition playing caste narratives through the Caste census and Pichda-Dalit-Alpsankhyak (PDA) card, the BJP is under pressure to pick a Dalit or OBC leader as state president.
Since the next UP BJP president will lead the party in the 2027 assembly polls, the BJP is also looking to balance caste and regional equations. This time, the party may pick a leader from eastern Uttar Pradesh where the BJP faced a setback in the Lok Sabha polls winning just 10 of the 24 seats. The BJP’s constitution mandates the appointment of at least half the number of district and city unit chiefs for the election of the state chief. The party has so far appointed 70 of the 98 district and city unit chiefs, thus clearing the deck for the state chief’s appointment.
The possible contenders for the post are state minister Dharmpal Singh, Union Minister of State B L Verma, Rajya Sabha MP Baburam Nishad, former MPs Ram Shankar Katheria, Vinod Sonkar, Neelam Sonkar, and ex-MLC Vidya Sagar Sonkar.