New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey was on Friday appointed Uttar Pradesh BJP president in place of Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, the party said in a statement.
BJP president Amit Shah's decision to put Pandey (59) in charge of the state unit appears to be aimed at consolidating the party's hold over the state's sizable Brahmin population in UP. An upper caste Brahmin from Mirzapur in eastern UP, Pandey could provide the countervailing pull to the BJP as the state government is being headed by a Rajput leader.
But Pandey's nomination also brings an element of regional imbalance within the state BJP. Now both the state president and CM are from the Poorvanchal region. The BJP may attempt to check this regional tilt in the next cabinet reshuffle at the Centre, sources said.
The appointment is one of the biggest announcements to have come from the state, ahead of the 2019 elections, as Pandey’s biggest responsibility would be to make sure the party retains all seats that it won the last time around in 2014.
Pandey is a Lok Sabha MP from Chandauli Constituency, Uttar Pradesh.
The seasoned BJP leader had served as a minister in previous BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Chandauli, an eastern UP constituency, and was appointed in 2016 as a minister of state for human resource development (HRD).
His predecessor Maurya came from the OBC community and was made one of the two deputy chief ministers in the state government.
Pandey is likely to resign as a Union minister as he assumes his new charge. It will create one more vacancy in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers. Party sources have indicated that a cabinet reshuffle may happen anytime.
Speculation has also swirled over the fate of Cabinet minister Kalraj Mishra, a prominent Brahmin leader from UP, as he has crossed the age of 75 years.
Many ministers were axed in the past after they crossed the age bar which the party has informally set for its ministers.
Mishra had also met Shah on Thursday.
Comments
0 comment