The BJP on Friday ended the long wait for appointing its State unit chief for Uttar Pradesh, bringing in Phulpur MP and OBC leader Keshav Prasad Maurya to head the party in the next year’s Assembly polls. The party also rehabilitated lingayat strongman BS Yeddyurappa as its Karnataka chief and appointed new presidents for Punjab, Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh.
Union Minister Vijay Sampla, a Dalit leader, will head BJP in Punjab, whereas MlA K laxman and former MP Tapir Gao will be the new party chiefs for Telangana and Arunachal Pradesh units.
Maurya, Yeddyurappa and Sampla are lok Sabha members at present. Uttar Pradesh and Punjab will go to polls next year while Karnataka will have elections in 2018.
A known Hindu hardliner, Maurya who started his career as VHP activist will face the onerous task to bring the BJP to power in the next year’s Assembly polls. Maurya, who is MP from Phulpur, replaces laxmikant Bajpai, a MlA from Meerut. He is expected to take charge on April 10.
“I am a disciplined soldier of the party. I have been given an order to lead the party in the State Assembly elections and I will ensure that party gets majority and forms next Government here,” Maurya told The Pioneer on telephone.
The decision to appoint Keshav Prasad Maurya as BJP State president was sudden and caught even party workers unaware. He was not a very known face in the party. He had won Assembly seat in 2012 from Sirathu in Kaushambhi district after suffering two defeats in 2002 and 2007 elections. He, however, won lok Sabha election from Phulpur, near Allahabad, with a record margin of over five lakh votes.
Incidentally the BJP had won Sirathu and Phulpur for the first time. Party lost the by-election in Sirathu after Maurya vacated the seat and went on to successfully contest lok Sabha election from Phulpur.
He started his career as VHP activist and was a ‘pracharak’ for Gangapar and Yamunapar areas in Allahabad for 18 years. He was arrested once in a murder case but police failed to prove charges in the court. He had 11 criminal cases against him.
“Yes, there are criminal cases against me. But these are not cases of personal enmity or I fought for my personal gains. These are all political cases where I fought with police or administration for people’s right,” Keshav Prasad said.
“Even today I declare that wherever BJP workers will see something wrong, I will lead the protest against the Government. The Government may lodge more cases against me I am not afraid of these cases,” he said.
Selection of Maurya seems to be a well thought out strategy to bring backward class voters in the party’s fold. For last many years upper castes have been appointed as State presidents. last backward BJP chief was Vinay Katiyar who was at the helm of affairs from 2002 to 2004. After that upper castes have been the president of the party in UP.
Maurya, however, does not want to discuss caste equation. “The fact is I am born to a backward caste. That’s the fact. I leave the rest for the media to analyse,” he said.
The new BJP chief had a humble beginning. His father had a tea shop in village Kasaya in Sirathhu. In earlier days he sold tea in that shop. But then there was turn of events. His rags to riches story became tale of Kaushambhi district. He now owns petrol pump, agro-trading company and Kamdhenu logistics. He is also partner of Jeevan-Jyoti hospital in Allahabad.
By bringing in Yeddyurappa, the BJP has played a masterstroke ahead of elections to State Assembly in 2018. Seventy-three-year-old Yeddyurappa formed the first BJP Government in the south. Yeddyurappa who became State party president in 1988 for the first time has built the party in the State from the scratch. He was also State president thrice before this appointment.
Yeddyurappa, a seven-time MlA and present MP from Shivamogga, is undisputed leaders of lingayats, a dominant community in Karnataka. Yeddyurappa formed a coalition Government with JD(S) and became Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister in 2006. He became Chief Minister in 2008. The news doing round is that Yeddyurappa might try to destabilise the Congress Government in the State and force an early elections to fructify the BJP’s prime agenda of “Congress-mukt bharat.”
Yeddyurappa, who was jailed for 21 days over corruption charges in 2011, has got a clean chit from the courts and his appointment will be the beginning for the party to get ready for the elections in the State.
Yeddyurappa had quit the BJP in 2012 after the party forced him to resign as Chief Minister over corruption charges and floated a new party.
In Telengana, newly appointed Telangana BJP unit president K lakshman exuded confidence that the party will emerge as an alternative to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti in the State.
Speaking to the media soon after his appointment was announced, laxman said, “The people also want the BJP as an alternative in the State”. He said that the BJP workers were working very hard in Telangana and exposing the failures of the ruling party.
laxman, a member of State Assembly expressed happiness over his appointment as State president of the party. “I have been working in the party for last 30 years as an ordinary worker. It goes to the credit of the BJP that it has produced so many good leaders,” he said.
laxman, a backward class leader will succeed G Kishan Reddy. The new leader is taking the reins at a time when the State unit is mounting pressure on the Central leadership to end the alliance with the Telugu Desam Party in Telangana.
Telangana BJP leaders are unhappy that the alliance with the BJP is hampering the growth of the party.