After carrying out a hunt for more than five months, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) top bosses finally zeroed in on a Jat face to be appointed as the new chief of the organization in Uttar Pradesh. Minister of Panchayat Raj in CM Yogi Adityanath's Cabinet in UP and member of legislative council Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary has been appointed new BJP state president on Thursday.
While Singh has been active in the organization since 1989, his focus has been in the west UP where he has delivered results in the recently held assembly polls despite odd conditions. The party had entrusted him with the task of winning the Jat community in the assembly polls, which was annoyed with the BJP due to the farmer’s agitation. Bhupendra Singh hails from Moradabad, west UP and has good connections among the various sections of the Jat community.
Around 25 parliament seats in the western part of UP have a strong presence of the Jat community and their votes could be decisive. According to a senior BJP leader from UP, the party has chosen a Jat leader to head the organization in the state for the first time. Before finalizing the name of Bhupendra Singh, BJP's top bosses held discussions with almost all the senior leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath and both the Deputy CMs.
Earlier, the party was considering the name of backward and Dalit leaders for this position but finally decided to go ahead with a Jat leader who could be useful in luring voters in west UP.
Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary was pitched against Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in the parliamentary elections of 1999 but was badly defeated. He first entered the legislative council of UP in 2016 and was made a state minister with an independent charge in the Yogi cabinet in 2017. He was made the cabinet minister in 2019 and after Yogi became CM again in 2022, Bhupendra Singh was made cabinet minister and given the charge of the Panchayat Raj department. Prior to becoming minister, Bhupendra Singh has been president of the BJP western UP zone. He started his political career in 1989 and was the president of the Moradabad unit of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in 1990.
