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Who is Pankaj Chaudhary, Maharajganj MP and frontrunner for UP BJP chief post?
The name of the next UP BJP chief will be announced by central election officer and union minister Piyush Goyal on December 14 at around 1pm.
As the deadline for the filing of nomination papers for the post of the next chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Uttar Pradesh unit ended at 3pm on Saturday, December 13, Uttar Pradesh minister Swatantra Dev Singh said that only one nomination has been filed by Pankaj Chaudhary.
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“A single nomination has been filed by Pankaj Chaudhary. The deadline (to file a nomination) was 3 pm. The nomination is being scrutinised. Announcement is to be made tomorrow...People are excited,” Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The name of the next chief will be announced by central election officer and union minister Piyush Goyal on December 14 at around 1pm, BJP state election officer and former union minister Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey earlier told news agency PTI.
Who is Pankaj Chaudhary?
Pankaj Chaudhary's name was being considered among the frontrunners for the post of UP BJP chief. The 66-year-old leader is the union minister of state for finance and a seventh-term MP from the Maharajganj parliamentary constituency. A member of the Kurmi caste, an Other Backward Class (OBC), he is considered a trusted confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah, and defence minister Rajnath Singh, according to PTI.
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“The leadership would be given to a leader who has long experience of working for the party and would be a person from the cadre," current state president Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
Chaudhary, a prominent OBC leader, defeated the Congress's Virendra Chaudhary by a margin of over 35,000 votes during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and was given appointed as union minister of state for finance.
Chaudhary's mother Ujjwal Chaudhary has served as the Maharajganj District Panchayat President and he began his political career from the local level as he served as a Member of the Municipal Corporation in Gorakhpur from 1989 to 1991, according to NDTV. He served as deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation for a year and was later appointed as the deputy mayor of Gorakhpur.
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Other names who were being discussed as probable candidates for the post were BL Verma, Ram Shankar Katheria, Dharampal Singh and UP deputy chief minister and former state president Keshav Prasad Maurya.
BJP's election in-charge had earlier emphasised the BJP's commitment to internal democracy and transparency, highlighting that the party is cadre-based and is not a family party in a jibe at the Congress.
Traditionally, the BJP state president is chosen unanimously, and elections are rarely needed. Despite this, the party has released the list of eligible voters for the election.
With inputs from agencies
