Union Minister Pankaj Chaudhary has been elected unopposed as the president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His election was formally announced by the Central Election Officer, Union Minister Piyush Goyal.
On this occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Central Election Officer K. Many senior BJP leaders including Laxman, Deputy Chief Ministers Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi and Legislative Council member Tariq Mansoor were also present.
Apart from Chaudhary, no other candidate had filed nomination for the post of BJP state president. In this way, the way for his unopposed election was cleared on Saturday itself.
After the announcement of elections, outgoing state BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary handed over the party flag to the newly elected state president Pankaj Chaudhary. At the same time, Central Election Officer Piyush Goyal gave Chaudhary the certificate of his election.
Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, considered a trusted leader of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, was elected MP for the seventh time from Maharajganj seat of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2024. He comes from the Kurmi community of other backward classes.
Kurmi community is considered to have significant influence in the politics of Uttar Pradesh. In the 2024 Lok Sabha and 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, this community had shown its inclination towards the main opposition party of the state, Samajwadi Party. It is believed that BJP has expressed confidence in Choudhary to win over Kurmi voters to its side.
BJP has already appointed leaders of Kurmi community as state president thrice in Uttar Pradesh. These include former MP Vinay Katiyar, former minister Om Prakash Singh and Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh.
BJP’s newly elected state president Pankaj Chaudhary will have the important responsibility of leading the party to victory in the panchayat elections to be held next year and the state assembly elections of 2027.
On this occasion, Union Minister Piyush Goyal also announced the election of a total of 120 members of the BJP National Council.Referring to some prominent names elected in the National Council, he said, “The members included in the National Council of Uttar Pradesh include Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Defense Minister of India Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur, Keshav Prasad Maurya from Prayagraj, Brijesh Pathak from Unnao, Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary from Sambhal, Smriti Irani from Sultanpur, Mahendra Nath Pandey from Varanasi, Surya Pratap Shahi “He is from Salempur, Swatantra Dev Singh is from Banda and Dr. Ramapati Ram Tripathi is from Gorakhpur.”