BJP’s national team: U.P. gets lion’s share, ex-AMU VC appointed party vice-president

Exactly a year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled the BJP’s growing focus on Pasmanda (backward) Muslims at the party’s Hyderabad meet in July 2022, former Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice chancellor Professor Tariq Mansoor, a Pasmanda himself, entered the BJP’s main body as national vice- president on Saturday.

The BJP’s new team has eight members from Uttar Pradesh in the main body, two more than the last team declared on September 26, 2020, showcasing the party’s focus on the state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, which are less then a year away.

Mansoor, 66, a general surgeon from AMU, is among the eight leaders from Uttar Pradesh who have found a place in BJP chief JP Nadda’s 38-member team.

The domination of U.P. in the national body with 21% representation reflects a mix of leaders with either caste appeal or organisational expertise or both, party leaders said.

Four leaders have been retained. They are: Arun Singh (upper caste Thakur and Rajya Sabha MP from U.P, national general secretary), Rekha Verma (Lok Sabha MP, Kurmi, OBC, vice-president), Shiv Prakash, named joint general secretary (organisation) from Lucknow and Rajesh Agarwal (representing trader community, treasurer).

Former state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai, elected a Rajya Sabha MP in May 2022 is the new Brahmin face from U.P. as another national vice- president. Bajpai is from west U.P. The previous BJP committee had Harish Dwivedi, a Brahmin MP from east UP.

Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, a Rajya Sabha MP from east UP and a popular doctor-politician, is the second general secretary from Uttar Pradesh. The previous BJP body had one general secretary from the state. Radha Mohan Das Agarwal had vacated his traditional Gorakhpur (city) seat for chief minister Yogi Adityanath, a five-term Lok Sabha MP, to enable him to contest his first assembly poll in 2022 and ever since his graph within the party has gone up.

Surendra Nagar, a Rajya Sabha MP and a Gurjar OBC from west UP, previously with the Samajwadi Party, is a new entrant into the BJP national team. Along with Jats, Gurjars are a key OBC caste in west UP. The BJP is also set to name district party chiefs across the state, with many likely to be replaced.

“Very soon some key joinings from other parties are likely to happen and then there is this expected rejig/expansion of the Yogi (ministry) 2.0 ahead of the Monsoon session of the state assembly from August 7. All these strategic developments will now start unfolding,” a BJP leader explained.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh BJP general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh was in Rae Bareli to attend a meeting of party “vistaraks” (people tasked with spreading the reach of party and its policies).

Rae Bareli, the Lok Sabha constituency of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is among the 14 parliamentary seats that the BJP, despite wresting the adjacent Amethi, had failed to win in U.P. in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“We intend to win all 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P. so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets to lead the country again for a record third consecutive stint and the new team reveals this focus,” UP BJP vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.

RMD Agarwal welcomes new responsibility

GORAKHPUR Rajya Sabha member Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who was nominated among the new national general secretaries of the BJP, on Saturday said he felt happy at being given the new responsibility. He thanked BJP national president JP Nadda and other leaders for reposing confidence in him.

Hundreds of his supporters gathered at his residence in Gorakhpur to congratulate him. Talking to reporters, Agarwal termed himself a party worker and said the new responsibility was part of expansion of his duties. The four-time former MLA is currently the party in- charge for Lakshwadeep and co-incharge for Karnataka.

He said the BJP was determined to win 350 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.