Ahead of UP elections, BJP announces new team: Rajnath Singh's son among 19 vice-presidents

Yogi Adityanath (L) Neeraj Singh (C) Pankaj Chaudhary (R)

LUCKNOW: Ending days of intense speculation, the UP BJP on Thursday announced its team of state organizational leaders who would be steering party's poll prospects in the run up to the high stakes UP assembly elections due early next year.The new team, comprising 19 vice-presidents, eight general secretaries and 19 secretaries, comes almost around six months after party MP and union minister Pankaj Chaudhary took charge as UP BJP chief in December last year.In all, the team, comprising 48 members (including Chaudhary and state general secretary-organization Dharampal Singh), is bigger than the previous one which comprised 43 members including 18 vice-president, seven general secretaries and 16 secretaries.Amongst the vice-presidents, the party has retained only four - Braj Bahadur, Mohit Beniwal, Dharmendra Singh and Devesh Kumar Kori. The most prominent inclusion amongst the VPs is that of union minister Rajnath Singh's younger son Neeraj Singh. He replaced his older brother and party MLA Pankaj Singh. The party has also appointed rebel SP MLA Pooja Pal as the state vice-president. Pal, however, is still a member of SP, as per Vidhan Sabha records.

Another prominent inclusion is that of former UP minister Suresh Rana, who lost his Thana Bhawan seat in 2022 assembly elections to RLD's Ashraf Ali Khan.Amongst the state general secretaries only two -- Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan and Sanjay Rai -- have been retained, while Priyanka Singh Rawat has been shifted as state vice-president. The party has also promoted state secretary Abhijat Mishra as the state general secretary.The BJP has tried to strike a caste balance while ensuring representation of different caste groups in the new team. A lion share has been given to the electorally important OBC community. Out of 46 newly appointed members, 20 are OBC (eight vice-president, four state general secretaries and eight secretaries). Likewise, six office bearers -- two VPs, one general secretary and three secretaries -- are from the SC community.This way more than 58% of the state unit comprises leaders from the OBC and the SC community -- in what marks BJP's sharp counter to opposition's Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll narrative which is said to have dented the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections bringing its tally down from 62 to 33.Nevertheless, the party has managed to give perceptible representation to the upper caste communities, BJP's traditional vote bank since the rise of Ram temple movement.

Out of the 46 new office bearers, seven are Brahmin, six are Thakur and seven are from vaishya, Bhumihar and Kayastha communities. This way the upper caste accounts for around 42% of the state team leaders in UP.The move gained significance months after BJP faced an intense backlash over the UGC regulations involving equity in higher education institutions regulation, meant to prevent caste-based discrimination on campus. The upper caste and the right-wing social groups had accused the BJP-led Centre of bowing to pressure and authorising institutional bias.The party effected a major organisational reshuffle in the six regions where all regional presidents were replaced. Out of the six regional presidents, four are from the OBC community. They included Nawab Singh Nagar (west UP), Pooran Lal Lodhi (Braj region), Ram Kishore Sahu (Kanpur-Bundelkhand) and Ashok Chaurasia (Kashi). Awadh region will be headed by Awdhesh Dwivedi, a Brahmin, while Gorakhpur region will be helmed by Vinod Rai, a Bhumihar.

Here is full list:

Vice presidents

Shri Suresh Rana

Shri Satyapal Saini

Shri Braj Bahadur

Dr Dharmendra Singh

Shri Mohit Beniwal

Shri Devesh Kori

Smt Priyanka Rawat

Shri Durvijay Shakya

Shri Ramesh Singh

Shri Neeraj Singh

Smt Archana Mishra

Smt Pooja Pal

Shri Shankar Giri

Shri Kameshwar Singh

Dr Kritika Agarwal

Shri Suresh Maurya

Shri Rajesh Yadav

Shri Krishna Bihari Rai

Shri Alok Gupta

General secretaries

Shri Ram Pratap Singh Chauhan

Smt Geeta Shakya

Shri Abhijat Mishra

Shri Upendra Rawat

Shri Sanjay Rai

Shri Shankar Lodhi

Shri Dileep Patel

Shri Rajesh Chaudhary

Secretaries

Shri Vijay Shivhare

Shri Basant Tyagi

Shri Shiv Bhushan Singh

Shri Sahjanand Rai

Shri Ankur Sharma

Shri Anil Yadav

Shri Awadhesh Srivastava

Shri Vijay Rajbhar

Shri Premendra Jangra Vishwakarma

Smt Kiran Lodhi Nishad

Shri Rakesh Bind

Smt Sanchita Singh Chauhan (Lunia)

Smt Rajni Pandey

Shri Rahul Valmiki

Smt Mahameda Nagar

Smt Deepmala Santoshi

Smt Suhasini Jaiswal

Shri Yatendra Sharma

Smt Aakanksha Sonkar

Regional presidents

West: Shri Nawab Singh Nagar

Braj: Shri Puran Lal Lodhi

Kanpur: Shri Ram Kishore Sahu

Awadh: Shri Awadhesh Dwivedi

Kashi: Shri Ashok Chaurasia

Gorakhpur: Shri Vinod Rai

Office bearers

Shri Bharat Dixit – Office Minister

Shri Atul Awasthi – Office Co-Minister

Shri Laxman Singh – Office Co-Minister

Spokesperson & Media

Shri Dinesh Pratap Singh – Chief Spokesperson

Shri Manish Dixit – State Media Coordinator

Shri Himanshu Raj Pandit – State Social Media Coordinator

Morcha presidents

Yuva Morcha: Shri Rohit Mishra

Backward Classes Morcha: Shri Prakash Pal

Kisan Morcha: Shri Devendra Singh

Scheduled Caste Morcha: Shri Ashok Rawat

Mahila Morcha: Smt Saroj Kushwaha

Scheduled Tribe Morcha: Shri Vidya Bhushan Gond

The appointments are seen as part of BJP’s preparations for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2027.