Bhupendra Chaudhary appointed new UP BJP chief

LUCKNOW: The BJP on Thursday appointed state Panchayati Raj minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary as the new UP BJP chief, bringing curtains down on the prolonged suspense over the anointment of a party leader for the key organisational post.
Chaudhary will take over from incumbent state president Swatantra Dev Singh who sent his resignation letter to party president JP Nadda last month itself.
An MLC, Chaudhary (55) happens to be a prominent BJP leader from the Jat community -- in what potentially positions the saffron outfit to firm up its foothold in the politically sensitive west UP region ahead of the high stake 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Chaudhary, who has been west UP region president of the state unit in the past was deployed by the saffron brass to assuage the Jat community at the peak of farmers' stir against the three farm laws -- they were taken back by PM Narendra Modi -- before the UP elections. The issue was picked up by the opposition, essentially the SP-RLD combine, in an attempt to turn the table on the BJP which has been politically advancing in the region even as Jat and Muslim entered into acrimonious terms following 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Chaudhary’s backward caste credentials also trains the arc-light over BJP's concerted attempts to consolidate its position amongst the OBC which are electorally significant in politically crucial UP.
This is BJP's second key selection from the west UP region, after the appointment of Dharampal Singh Saini, also an OBC, as state general secretary (organisation). Saini hails from Bijnor which has a sizable presence of dalits and Muslims.
A native of Moradabad, Chaudhary was recently nominated as an MLC for the second consecutive time. His term is till July 6, 2028. Chaudhary was a Panchayati Raj minister in the previous tenure of the Adityanath government.
Born in a farmer family in Mahendri Sikandarpur village of Moradabad district in 1966, Chaudhary did his early education in the village itself, before shifting to RN inter college in Moradabad. He later got associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and then formally joined the BJP in 1991. He contested the 1999 Lok Sabha elections against SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav from Sambal but lost by a margin of around 1.16 lakh votes.
On Wednesday, Bhupendra Chaudhary was in the middle of a programme in Azamgarh when he was called by the party high command to Delhi, sparking speculations about him being made the new UP BJP boss. Chaudhary met BJP president JP Nadda and then Union home minister Amit Shah before the party formally appointed him as the new state chief.