Will Keshav Prasad Maurya be next UP BJP chief? Deputy CM’s ‘organisation bigger than govt’ tweet sparks buzz

“The organisation is bigger than the government!” Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya tweeted on Sunday, amid speculation of the BJP appointing a new party chief in the state.

Swatantra Dev Singh, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet, had last month resigned from the post of the state BJP chief. He has already completed a three-year term as the party’s state president.

If Maurya is chosen as the next BJP chief in the state, he will be an OBC leader replacing another — a well-thought strategy keeping the caste arithmetic of the state in mind. Uttar Pradesh is the most crucial state for any party keeping the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in mind, given the fact that the state has the maximum number of Parliamentary seats.

A party office-bearer told PTI, “He (Keshav Prasad Maurya) has always said from every forum and even in public programmes that party workers should not consider themselves less than a deputy CM, and the officials should understand this. Today, he said the same thing in Ghaziabad, and also tweeted it.”

An influential OBC leader, Maurya had served as the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief during the 2017 UP Assembly elections.

The appointment of the new UP BJP chief is also important from the point of view of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Maurya was recently appointed the leader of the party’s legislature party in the Legislative Council in place of Swatantra Dev Singh.

He was made the deputy CM after Yogi Adityanath became the chief minister following the BJP’s massive victory in 2017 Assembly polls. Maurya retained the post this year despite losing his election, making it evident how important the OBC leader is to the BJP.

While there seems no hidden controversy leading to reports of change in leadership, Singh – currently serving as the Jal Shakti Minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet – was recently in news when his junior minister Dinesh Khatik offered to quit, alleging corruption in his ministry and being ignored because of his Dalit identity.

It is, however, believed that Khatik — a prominent Dalit face of the party — was expecting a larger role in the Yogi government’s second tenure and that a lack of coordination between him and Singh might have led to his resignation bid.

Singh was appointed as the UP BJP chief in July 2019 after Mahendra Nath Pandey was re-elected to the Lok Sabha and joined the central government. After serving Pandey’s remaining term, Singh was re-elected as the state party chief for a three-year tenure in 2020.