25 OBCs, six Dalits, five women on U.P. BJP’s list of 70 dist presidents
BJP announces 70 district presidents in UP, focusing on caste representation ahead of 2027 polls, including 25 OBCs, 6 SCs, and 5 women.
With the Samajwadi Party focusing on the PDA (Pichda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak) formula, the BJP has come up with its own caste matrix as it declared the list of 70 district presidents comprising 25 Other Backward Classes (OBCs), six Scheduled Castes and five women on Sunday, less than two years before the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls are due.
Out of the 70 district presidents named, 39 belong to the general category, 44 are newly elected and 26 have got a second consecutive term. Now, after the announcement of district presidents, the BJP will roll out the process to elect a new state president of the party. For organisational purposes, the BJP has divided the state into 98 districts.
“The caste factor was taken into consideration in the selection process of district presidents,” said Mahendra Nath Pandey, state election incharge, BJP. “No one has got a third consecutive term,” Pandey added. “The party will contest all forthcoming elections under the leadership of these district presidents,” Pandey said.
“The district presidents in the remaining 28 districts will be announced soon,” he added. “The party has made a rule that a person who has been elected district president twice in a row will not be re-elected for the third time,” he said.
The BJP’s organisational election process began in November 2024. In Decembe, elections of 1,62,459 booth committees were held. After that, the election of 1918 mandal adhyakshes was completed.
The nomination process for the election of district presidents was completed in the second week of January. Thereafter, through consensus, the names of 70 district presidents were announced on Sunday in the respective district BJP offices.
The entire process was monitored online by the party’s state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh and state election incharge Mahendra Nath Pandey by setting up a task center at the state BJP headquarters in Lucknow.
In the first list, five district presidents are women. In the general category, there are 19 Brahmins, 10 Thakurs, three Kayasthas, two Bhumihars, four Vaishyas and one Punjabi.
Twenty-five district presidents belong to the OBC category. One district president each has been appointed from the Yadav, Badhai (Carpenter), Kashyap, Kushwaha, Pal, Rajbhar, Rastogi, Saini and Vaishya communities.
Five Kurmis, two Mauryas, four Pichhda Vaishyas and two Lodhs have been elected. Six district presidents have been appointed from the Scheduled Caste category – one each from the Dhobi, Katheria, Kori and three from Pasi community.
In the state capital, Anand Dwivedi was re-elected for the second consecutive term. From Lucknow, Dwivedi’s nomination was the only one for the post of district president, which paved the way for his unanimous election.
After his re-election, Dwivedi went to the residence of deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak and also reached the state BJP headquarters where he met Mahendra Nath Pandey. Vijay Maurya was elected president of the Lucknow city unit of the party.
