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| Photo Credit: VIJAY SONEJI
In a major rejig to organisational structure ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh is planning to change at least 50 district presidents
Many of the district presidents who are expected to face the axe are those Lok Sabha seats where the party is considered vulnerable due to thin margin of victory in the last parliamentary polls or have faced defeat in the 2019 general election and the 2022 Assembly polls.
“Changes in the organisation is on the cards. Many of the district presidents have completed their tenure of three years. In a disciplined party like the BJP, dedicated workers gets chance. After the new State president Bhupendra Chaudhary ji took charge, district-wise change in leadership position is due. We will see new faces as district presidents in many districts, while old faces would also be repeated in various other districts, keeping an eye of future polls,” told Rakesh Tripathi, Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson to The Hindu.
There are 98 organisational districts of BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The teams at regional-level would also likely to be declared in the overhaul process. The BJP divided Uttar Pradesh, the politically most crucial state for the party’s national ambitions in six regions. Districts where the saffron party lost in 2019 Lok Sabha or the 2022 State Assembly and districts considered challenging for the BJP in U.P. like Ghazipur, Azamgarh, Amroha, Ballia, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Ambedkar Nagar etc. may comprise a significant number of new appointees and from core support social base focused on non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs) castes. The BJP is specifically targeting 14 parliamentary segments represented by the opposition parties in U.P.
After his appointed as State BJP chief in August 2022, Mr. Chaudhary took more than six months to declare the new State team comprising of 18 state vice-presidents, 16 secretaries, seven general secretaries and six regional presidents aimed on fixing and pacifying the core support base of the saffron party like non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Brahmins and Rajputs and the majority representation in the team were from these caste groups.