BJP gears up to welcome its first Jat state chief

This will be Chaudhary’s first visit to the state capital after the party leadership on Thursday finally cleared his name, in line with the party’s desire to connect with Jat farmers in west U.P. ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) is all set to roll out the red carpet to welcome its first Jat chief — Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, 55 — who will arrive by train in Lucknow from Delhi on Monday.

New U.P. BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary met Union agriculture and farmer welfare minister NS Tomer on Sunday. Chaudhary who has already met several top BJP leaders arrives in Lucknow on Monday. (Sourced)

This will be Chaudhary’s first visit to the state capital after the party leadership on Thursday finally cleared his name, in line with the party’s desire to connect with Jat farmers in west U.P. ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The move is also being seen as an attempt to dent the impact of the Samajwadi Party’s alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which boasts of Jat leadership, and, despite the BJP’s win in the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2022 U.P. elections, managed to make an impression in the Jat belt.

To extend a warm welcome to the new chief, a meeting under newly-appointed state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal, was held at the party headquarters. Incidentally, Dharampal also hails from west Uttar Pradesh. Now the new organisational leadership of the U.P. unit would be expected to chart out strategies to continue the party’s winning streak in the most populous Indian state.

In the meeting, state general secretaries Govind Narayan Shukla, Subrat Pathak and Amarpal Maurya, state secretaries Sanjay Rai, Archana Mishra and Shankar Lodhi, state media in-charge Manish Dixit and co-in-charge Himanshu Dubey, IT cell convener Kameshwar Mishra, and social media cell convener Ankit Chandel were present.

U.P. BJP general secretary Subrat Pathak said the party cadres would extend Chaudhary a warm welcome soon after he reaches Lucknow around 12.30 pm.

“From the railway station, his first stop would be the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Smritika where the BJP chief would offer his tribute to the party ideologue by garlanding the latter’s statue,” Pathak said.

The state BJP chief is also scheduled to garland the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and Sardar Patel at Hazratganj as well as the statue of former prime minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Lok Bhawan.

“After this, the BJP chief would arrive at the state party headquarters where the party leadership, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak along with other ministers, state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal and outgoing BJP state chief Swatantra Dev, would welcome him,” Pathak added.