Swatantra Dev Singh is new UP BJP chief

LUCKNOW: State transport and protocol minister Swatantra Dev Singh was appointed UP BJP chief on Tuesday. Singh’s appointment put an end to two months of speculation over the successor of incumbent Mahendra Nath Pandey, a Brahmin, who was inducted into the Narendra Modi Cabinet in its second term.
Singh, an OBC, has had a long stint with the RSS and has served three terms as BJP state general secretary — in 2004, 2010 and 2012. He was entrusted with key organisational responsibilities in UP as well as Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka.
Considered close to BJP national president Amit Shah, Singh was in-charge of electioneering and political campaigns of PM Narendra in UP during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Despite being a minister in the Yogi cabinet since 2017, the 55-year-old leader has remained active in party’s organisational activities.Singh’s appointment is being seen as BJP’s attempt to woo OBCs, who constitute 50% of UP’s population in UP and are a key vote bank for parties. Singh is a Kurmi, an OBC sub-caste which constitutes around 7% of total OBC population.
Singh’s anointment comes at a time when the party is eyeing big gains in the upcoming bypolls in UP amid the break up of SP-BSP. Singh’s three-year term will see him leading the party’s state unit in 2022 UP polls.
Analysts say that BJP had successfully played the OBC card ahead of 2017 UP polls when it had picked Keshav Prasad Maurya, an OBC, as UP BJP chief. The party is eyeing a repeat of the same strategy in the run up to 2022 polls, say analysts.
Swatandra Dev Singh, who hails from Orai in Jalaun, has seen many ups and down in his political career. After starting his career as a journalist, Singh was appointed organisational secretaty of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, an organisation affiliated to the RSS, in 1988. Soon he became a full-time member of BJP and was appointed as state president of Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 2001. In 2002, he organised a ‘Seema Jagran Yatra’ from UP’s Saharanpur to Bihar. He was also in-charge of the Ganga Yatra between Garhmukteshwar to Ballia.
In 2004, party nominated him as an MLC and in 2010 he was appointed as UP BJP vice-president. In 2012, he contested UP assembly elections from Kalpi but lost to Congress’s Uma Kanti. After the BJP stormed to power in UP in 2017, Singh was again nominated as an MLC and subsequently a minister in Yogi cabinet. His appointment as UP BJP chief would further lead to cabinet rejig in the state cabinet as BJP follows one person one post principle.