Organisational elections are on in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and all eyes are on the man who will head the Uttar Pradesh unit. Many names are being discussed. Among central leaders, Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma and MP Varun Gandhi are rumoured to have been contacted but the chances of their appointment are slim. Among the local leaders, the chances seem the brightest for five-term MLA Dharampal Singh Lodhi, an Other Backward Class (OBC) BJP leader.
The BJP has two choices. Given UP's caste landscape, it can either appoint an OBC to head its unit in a state where the largest number of its 71 MPs out of 80 in the 2014 election are from the OBC. Or it can be contrarian and appoint a Brahmin. Mahesh Sharma is a Brahmin; but Dharampal Singh and Swatantra Dev, a Kurmi and a one-term MLC, seem to be frontrunners. The internal party election process will be over by January 23 and after that the appointment of a new party president at the centre as well as state unit chiefs should be appointed.
