BJP fortifies UP ground forces before 2024 battle, 71% of district presidents changed, recalibration in west UP

The BJP has been aiming to improve its performance in the west UP districts (as per its organisational map), which has 14 Lok Sabha constituencies. The BJP won all 14 in 2014 but two years later faced with the combined forces of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Sam Party (BSP), and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the BJP’s tally came down to seven as the BSP won four constituencies and the SP three. Though the BSP is maintaining a neutral position now, keeping away from both the ruling party and the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties, the SP and the RLD tie-up is still holding. The BJP is hoping that this organisational revamp will give it the much-needed boost to again make a clean sweep in this crucial region of a state critical to its 2024 fortunes.

In total, the BJP changed presidents of 14 of the 15 district units under which come the 16 Lok Sabha seats that it lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The only district left untouched is Jaunpur. Though the party wrested the Rampur and Azamgarh seats from the Opposition in bypolls last year, it still changed its presidents in these districts.

On the massive organisational changes, BJP state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said, “Many of them had completed their terms. Some have become public representatives, whereas others have been allotted different roles in the party organisation. The emerging political scenario ahead of the Lok Sabha polls has also been considered while appointing new district presidents.” Chaudhary also said that the district in-charges would be appointed soon.

A party leader said on the condition of anonymity that some district presidents were changed because of complaints against them or because the party felt the need for more active leaders in those units ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Significant among the changes announced was the decision to drop the president of Mau district, where the party lost the Ghosi Assembly bypoll earlier this month. In place of Praveen Gupta, the party has appointed Nupur Agarwal as the new district president. District presidents have been changed in Muzaffarnagar, where the party lost the Khatauli Assembly bypoll in December 2022, as well as in Mainpuri, where it faced defeat in the Lok Sabha bypoll last year.

Significantly, the Mahanagar and Zila presidents of high-profile districts such as Varanasi and Gorakhpur have been retained. Varanasi is the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi while Gorakhpur is the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In Varanasi, Vidyasagar Rai has been retained as the BJP’s Mahanagar president, whereas Hansraj Vishwakarma will continue to be in charge of the party’s affairs in the Zila unit. A change was expected in the Varanasi Zila unit after Vishwakarma became a member of UP’s Legislative Council earlier this year. “Rai has got a second term and Vishwakarma a third consecutive term, possibly because the Lok Sabha polls are near and with the PM the MP from Varanasi, the party wanted experienced hands there,” said a BJP leader. In Gorakhpur, Rajesh Gupta will continue as the Mahanagar president and Yudhishthir Singh as the president of the Zila unit.

In the important district unit of Ayodhya Mahanagar, Kamlesh Srivastava has replaced Abhishek Mishra though in Ayodhya Zila the party has retained Sanjeev Singh. The appointment of new district presidents had been delayed for the past six months, but the party finally sent observers to every district to finalise the names a few weeks ago, according to insiders.

Not just district-level leaders, the BJP is said to be considering dropping nearly one-fourth of its MPs in the state for the Lok Sabha polls. Sources in the BJP have said some Union Ministers may be among those dropped. Most of these changes may happen in west and east UP, according to the party insiders.