New Uttar Pradesh BJP chief has internal and external challenges before next Assembly battle

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) newly elected head of the Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) unit, Union Minister Pankaj Chaudhary, may have come to the job after a long process of consultation, but was likely signalled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2023 itself, a choice seemingly aimed at combating the organisational challenges faced by U.P. BJP, with Assembly elections due in 2027. 

It was on July 7, 2023 that the Prime Minister, in Gorakhpur for a felicitation ceremony related to the historic Gita Press publishers, made an unannounced visit to Mr. Chaudhary’s residence in the Harivansh Gali there, a street not totally accessible by car, due to which Mr. Modi, along with State Governor Anandiben Patel and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath walked a short distance to the house itself.

The impromptu visit made news, and tea leaves were read of the greater prominence coming Mr. Chaudhary’s way, and when in 2024, he was made Minister of State after the Lok Sabha elections, the impromptu visit was said to have fructified, then forgotten.

Not so in the Prime Minister’s mind, it seems, as after extensive floating of names between Mr. Adityanath, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) joint general secretary Arun Kumar, and BJP president J.P. Nadda, Mr. Modi has selected Mr. Chaudhary for the crucial role.

Mr. Chaudhary thus finds himself at the helm of affairs of a party unit that has several challenges in its path, and his affable persona, Other Backward Class (OBC) identity, Poorvanchali location, and general acceptability to both party workers and the Chief Minister are expected to address all that.

Since the Assembly election of 2022, the sundering within the BJP between the party organisation and the government that runs the State has been obvious. During the 2022 poll, the fact that Mr. Adityanath, considered independent of the BJP’s organisational structure because of the influence of his own outfit, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, and the historic appeal of the Gorakhnath Peeth, was treading his own line. That he had differences with his deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya, the quintessential organisation man, who had come up through the ranks of the State unit, was obvious.

Then U.P. election in-charge, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, had his hands full calming the tempers of district-level party workers, who were reluctant to help elect the party to power when their voices weren’t heard at the top levels of the State government. That is an issue which persists, and Mr. Chaudhary’s first order of business would have to be to establish coordination between the State government and the party organisation, in terms of programmes, and in fostering some bonhomie.

The Lok Sabha election of 2024 saw the BJP lose its dominant position in the previous two Lok Sabha elections (of 2014 and 2019), and slide down to 33 seats from the 62 seats it had won in 2019. This was largely attributed to OBC and Scheduled Caste (SC) voters drifting to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, with the decline of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), especially in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Mr. Chaudhary, a Kurmi, and a seven-term MP from Maharajganj in northeastern U.P., is expected to shore up support in this critical area. 

As the BJP goes into the U.P. Assembly election of 2027 to attempt an unprecedented hat-trick of wins, the Prime Minister and the party appear to have staked their hopes on Mr. Chaudhary.