'Partial' organisational rejig on cards for BJP in Uttar Pradesh

Luckow: With an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Uttar Pradesh BJP will soon undergo "partial organisational restructuring" to fill up vacant posts in the party unit.

The BJP will also take along anyone who agrees with its ideology including former ally Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), state unit president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said.

Led by Omprakash Rajbhar, a strong backward leader with influence in eastern Uttar Pradesh districts, the SBSP fought the 2017 assembly elections with the BJP but later joined the Samajwadi Party-led alliance.

It fought the 2022 assembly polls with the Samajwadi Party and won six seats but later parted ways with the Akhilesh Yadav-led party too.

"My party recently gave me the opportunity to serve as the state president. Some members of the organisation have become ministers in the government, so I have requested the leadership for partial reorganisation. I have got the permission," Chaudhary told PTI in an interview.

"There will not be a major change but only partial organisational restructuring," said Chaudhary, who belongs to the Jat community and was made the state unit chief in August last year.

Some state ministers -- Urban Development Minister Arvind Kumar Sharma, Transport Minister (Independent Charge) Dayashankar Singh and Cooperative Credit Minister (Independent Charge) J P S Rathore -- are currently holding party posts too.

Minister Babyrani Maurya is an office-bearer of the BJP national executive.

In a meeting of the BJP State Working Committee here last month, the BJP set a target of winning all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.

On the BJP joining hands again with the SBSP, Chaudhary said, "Our stand is clear, we welcome everyone. We will take along anyone who agrees with our ideology and wants to work with us." "Rajbhar ji was with us and if he agrees with our ideology, the party will certainly give him an opportunity to work with us," he said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had sacked Rajbhar from his Cabinet in May 2019 for his outbursts against senior NDA partner BJP.

However, after parting ways with the SP last year, Rajbhar's stand towards the BJP appears to have softened. His party had supported the NDA candidate in the presidential election last year.