After Assam, Shah gears up for UP

BJP National Executive will meet in Allahabad on June 12-13.

The BJP National Executive will meet in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh on June 12-13, in a nod to the next political challenge it sees on its horizon, namely the Assembly polls in that State next year. This is however not the only signal that is going out of BJP president Amit Shah’s office to the state unit in Lucknow.

Six zones

In meetings held last week, the party high command divided the State into six zones for campaign, and significantly, having thrown its lot with Keshav Prasad Maurya, a non-Yadav OBC as State unit chief, appointed upper caste heads for all these zones. “Laxman Acharya has been given charge of Kashi division which includes the Prime Minister [Narendra Modi’s] constituency of Varanasi, Upendra Shukla for Gorakhpur [eastern U.P.], B.L. Verma for Braj (Western U.P.], Manvendra Singh for Kanpur and Bundelkhand, Bhupendra Chaudhary for the rest of Western U.P. and Mukut Bihari for Awadh,” said a senior party leader privy to these meetings.

“For the first time for the BJP, cities and districts will have separate prabharis who will be over seeing campaign duties in these areas,” said the source. “No call has yet been taken on whether to project a face for U.P. or not,” said the source. “The decision to hold the party’s national executive in Allahabad which is not only an important centre in U.P. but also the home ground of our State unit chief [Mr. Maurya is MP from Phulpur, formerly Jawahar Lal Nehru’s seat],” said a source.

Shah’s trusted team

Mr. Shah’s trusted 2014 team is already part of the organisational structure of the State unit, including Sunil Bansal and national secretary Mahendra Singh, a key aide of Mr. Shah in U.P. and who was deputed to Assam during the Assembly polls there.

While triumphs in other States are more than welcome, the party is convinced that it would require all hands on deck to replicate even a semblance of its performance in the 2014 general elections, when the BJP won 71 out of 80 seats. Facing a resurgent Mayawati, a persistent SP and a Congress that appears to be ready to take the risk of appointing a poll strategist to work his magic, the BJP has its task cut out.