As the next electoral battle shifts to Uttar Pradesh, there is a growing buzz within the Bharatiya Janata Party that Union home minister Amit Shah and national general secretary Sunil Bansal could be assigned a more direct role in the state to recalibrate the party’s caste arithmetic ahead of the next assembly polls.
Sections within the organisation feel that Uttar Pradesh’s complex caste dynamics may require leaders with deeper electoral experience in the state. (FILE PHOTO) The speculation follows the party’s recent electoral experience and its organisational push in West Bengal, where booth-level management and tight coordination delivered results, powering the party to a big win in the assembly polls and ending the Trinamool Congress’s 15-year reign.
However, within the BJP, there is also recognition that Uttar Pradesh presents a far more complex challenge — one that cannot be addressed by organisational fixes alone.
At present, central leaders BL Santosh and Vinod Tawde are overseeing party affairs in UP. Yet, sections within the organisation feel that the state’s complex caste dynamics may require leaders with deeper electoral experience in UP.
Shah, who played a pivotal role in the BJP’s 2017 assembly victory in UP, and Bansal, credited with building the party’s organisational network in the state, are seen as having that grounding.
“While Amit Shah may start focusing on UP affairs more closely and directly, Sunil Bansal could be made the UP in- charge to prepare the electoral pitch for the party in the state’s most crucial state,” a senior BJP leader said.
The BJP’s dominance in UP was built on a broad social coalition of upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits, backed by a strong Hindutva narrative. Recent elections suggest this coalition is showing signs of strain. The rise of the Samajwadi Party under Akhilesh Yadav, particularly through its PDA (Pichhda, Dalit,
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