Hunt for new UP BJP chief: State minister, MLCs likely contenders

June 10, 2019 10:06

With Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey making it to the Union cabinet, all eyes are now on who will lead the party in the politically crucial state where bypolls to 11 assembly seats are slated this year.

Leading the charge of the BJP's state unit in the Lok Sabha elections, Pandey took on an united opposition in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won 62 of the 80 parliamentary seats and demolished the SP-BSP alliance that got 15 seats between them.

The saffron party's ally Apna Dal (S) won two seats and the Congress, the lone Rae Bareli seat of Sonia Gandhi. Pandey, who is now Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, cannot simultaneously be minister and state president under the BJP's "one person-one post" principle.

Though leaders are tight-lipped on who will eventually head the BJP's affairs in the state, some senior party members have hinted that Uttar Pradesh minister Swatantradev Singh, MLCs Vidyasagar Sonkar and Laxman Acharya, and MP Mahesh Sharma are likely replacements for Pandey. They, however, did not rule out that there can be new entries in the race to the coveted post in the state. -- PTI

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