Lucknow: Top BJP leaders from UP will play the most important role in the nomination and subsequent election of Nitin Nabin as the party’s national president, scheduled on Jan 19-20.Out of the total 775 members in the national council, UP alone is represented by 120 members, including PM Narendra Modi, defence minister Rajnath Singh, CM Yogi Adityanath, deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and the newly appointed UP BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary. These leaders will formally take part in the nomination and subsequent election of Nabin as the national chief.
Other prominent UP BJP leaders included in the national council from UP are former UP BJP chief and MLC Bhupendra Chaudhary, former Amethi MP Smriti Irani, former MP Mahendra Nath Pandey, former MP Ramapati Ram Tripathi, and UP ministers Surya Pratap Shahi and Swatantra Dev Singh.These members from UP were formally included in the council in the presence of BJP poll in-charge and Union minister Piyush Goyal during the election of Pankaj Chaudhary as the UP BJP president.BJP sources said top party leaders from UP have been asked to reach Delhi on Jan 19, when Nabin would file his nomination papers. He is expected to be the only leader to do so, which would lead to his formal election as the new national chief. This, sources said, suggested BJP central leadership achieved a broader internal alignment while prioritising internal stability. A senior party leader said that it also lends reassurance that the party remains cohesive and centrally steered, with no factionalism at the top.Nabin would file three sets of papers. One set will have signatures of more than 20 elected BJP state presidents. Second set will have the signatures of party’s central leaders, including PM Modi, Rajnath, Amit Shah and JP Nadda. The third set will have signatures of members from the BJP national council. The process, a BJP leader said, signals a tightly managed, consensus-driven transition rather than a competitive internal election.The prominence of BJP leaders from UP in the nomination, analysts said, underlines the state’s centrality in the power structure of the saffron outfit. UP’s numerical and political weight within the BJP is significant, both in terms of parliamentary strength and organisational depth and will be amply visible, sources said.
