Shah picks Brahmin as BJP chief in UP
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 31
Catering to the party’s caste requirements in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2019 General Election, BJP chief Amit Shah today appointed Minister of State (HRD) Mahendra Nath Pandey as party chief of the key state.
The appointment of Chandauli MP Pandey, a Brahmin, is expected to balance the BJP’s caste equation, which at present seems to be overtly tilted in favour of “OBCs and Dalits”.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath is a Thakur from Uttarakhand, while his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya belongs to the OBC community, which played a major role in shifting the last Assembly polls in BJP’s favour.
The BJP’s focus on OBCs and Dalits to win the Assembly polls had given rise to apprehensions of alienating Brahmins, it seems. Apparently, Shah took the decision after “consulting” Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Kalraj Mishra. Speculation is also rife that the meeting suggested that the 76-year-old leader could be on the way out of the PM’s council of ministers.
Selected keeping in mind the 2019 polls, Pandey would be expected to give a repeat performance of 2014 when the BJP won 71 out of 80 Lok Sabha constituencies.
