Lucknow: With assembly elections due early next year, the much-anticipated organisational rejig in the UP BJP, expected later this month, is likely to swing the spotlight back on party’s bid to strike a balance between the upper caste and the OBC-Dalit combo.Facing the heat over the controversy around UGC equity regulations and the face-off with Swami Avimukteshvaranand Saraswati during the Magh Mela, the BJP leadership is learnt to be treading a cautious path while making moves to consolidate the upper caste, which was the backbone of the party’s electoral success since the early 1990s. The party relayed initial hints recently when it released the fresh list of 11 district presidents, of which six were from the upper caste (three Brahmins and one each from the Thakur, Vaishya and Kayastha community), three were OBC and two were from the Dalit community. The distribution indicated that the party was unwilling to abandon its traditional base while simultaneously ensuring representation of backward and marginalised groups. All eyes are now on the new UP BJP state executive, which will steer the party’s organisational machinery in the election year. Changes are expected to be affected across the state leadership, which has a domination of the upper caste. Of the 18 vice-presidents, 10 are from the upper caste, five are OBC and three are Dalit. Likewise, of the seven state general secretaries, three are from the upper caste, three are OBC and one is SC. Similarly, of the 16 state secretaries, nine are from the upper caste, three are OBC and four are Dalits. As a matter of fact, while CM Yogi Adityanath is a Thakur, UP BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary and state general secretary (organisation) Dharam Pal Singh are OBC. At the same time, the BJP seeks a measured and accelerated outreach to the non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Dalit to augment its social coalition that formed the launch pad of its electoral success under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi in 2014. The OBC-Dalit combo has become all the more important for the BJP even as it faces a resurgent opposition and its Piccha Dalit Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll narrative, which is said to have dented the saffron brigade in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections when its tally came down from 62 to 33. Sources said that the UP BJP leadership was coordinating closely with the RSS, the party’s organisational fountainhead, while constituting a new team. The BJP-RSS coordination meetings have already been held in various organisational regions to draw up a formal blueprint of the organisational set-up. A senior UP BJP leader said that besides the caste balance, the party aims to bring in equitable representation of all six regions. Currently, the balance is tilted in favour of the Gorakhpur region, which happens to be the political backyard of not only Adityanath but also Chaudhary. Not surprisingly, the focus is expected to be on five other regions: Kashi, Braj, Awadh, West UP and Kanpur-Bundelkhand. “The party’s foremost priority was to give balanced representation to all castes, communities and regions based on the winnability factor. This would be factored in prominently when the new team is announced,” said UP BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai. A senior UP BJP leader said that the party is expected to focus on the deployment of youth and women functionaries, the two key electoral blocs, in an attempt to cut across the caste spectrum. Analysts said that while young voters form a large share of UP’s electorate, women voters increasingly determine electoral outcomes.
