The BJP is drawing up a roadmap for revival of the party structure in Uttar Pradesh that holds the key to its return to power at the Centre after next general elections.
Having appointed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s confidant Amit Shah as prabhari of Uttar Pradesh, the leadership has decided to divide it into six or seven zones for better election management and preparedness. All zones would be headed by a senior leader who would directly report to Shah.
The arrangement is being put in place after the central leadership of the party received complaints about functioning of State unit chief laxmikant Bajpai, who is being blamed for his failure to enthuse party cadre.
“We plan to divide the entire States into Braj-Bareilly, Paschim, Awadh, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Bundelkhand zones for better coordination among party workers. A senior leader would be made in-charge. The idea behind such a move is to address issues of these regions at the local level without requiring intervention of either the State or central leadership,” a senior BJP functionary told The Pioneer.
Bihar MlA Rameshwar Chaurasia will be in-charge of districts under Varanasi zone while Bihar MlC Satyendra Kushwaha would look after the Bundelkhand region. Both Chaurasia and Kushwaha are sah-prabhari of Uttar Pradesh. Party’s national spokesman Captain Abhimanyu could get charge of either the Brij-Bareilly or Jat-dominated Paschim region as Abhimanyu is a Jat leader from Haryana.
“We will soon finalise the name of in-charge of other reasons too,” the party leader claimed. BJP is hopeful that “Modi wave” will revive the party in Uttar Pradesh, where it had won 57 out of total 80 lok Sabha seats in 1998.
Those who want Modi to be projected as BJP’s PM candidate are suggesting fielding the Gujarat CM from a UP constituency in the next lok Sabha polls. They claim his presence would lead to frenzy in urban areas and wean away the OBC voters from Samajwadi Party and the Congress to eventually lead to the magical combination of upper caste plus non-Yadav OBC.