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LUCKNOW Growing joblessness could be the latest opposition salvo against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. But in Uttar Pradesh, cadres across political parties seem to have a problem of plenty.

There are multiple vacancies for the cadres as parties brace for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and before that for a mini test – the civic polls, expected by the year-end.

That’s reason enough why all parties are looking at a major revamp in UP. The BJP is expected to have a new state chief soon, the Congress too is looking for one. The Samajwadi Party has a state chief, but has dissolved state and national bodies. There are going to be openings in frontal wings of all these parties and the BSP too, taking a cue from the BJP, has decided to strengthen its booth presence.

These parties are taking their time filling up vacancies from a pool of candidates. For instance, it’s now over 100 days since the Congress think tank started scrutinising candidates for the state chief’s post. In the ruling BJP, an equal number of days have passed for the party to implement the ‘one-man, one-post’ principle for the state chief’s post.

After the 2022 UP polls and the subsequent losses in Rampur and Azamgarh Lok Sabha bypolls, the Samajwadi Party leadership didn’t change its state chief Naresh Uttam Patel but has terminated the tenure of all national and state body members. The BSP too is making booth level changes in the party, after dividing the state into 6 sectors and tasking about a dozen party leaders to arrest the party’s sliding graph, which saw it slip, even behind the Congress in 2022 UP polls, where against a solitary BSP win, two lawmakers won on Congress ticket.

While 2024 is the larger goal, the immediate mini-exercise that would test the opposition, are the civic polls, likely to be held in November, experts said.

“The parties appear to be taking their time in making appointments, and for a good reason too, as these postings would give a sense of their 2024 Lok Sabha poll plan. So I guess, elaborate consultations are happening in all parties ahead of the announcements. All appointments would be tested straightaway in the civic polls, possibly due in a few months,” said prof Manuka Khanna, head of the Lucknow University’s political science department.

“Agda, dalit ya pichda, sabka yahi confusion hai (forward, dalit or backward caste, that is the main dilemma),” said a Congress leader who feels that having given maximum Brahmin chief ministers in UP (since the last Congress government in UP in 1989), the party leadership is now looking for a state chief who could help arrest the party’s slide.

Despite a string of spectacular poll wins since 2014, the BJP is now looking to close the decision on state chief. Despite a wild guessing game on who could replace the current incumbent Swatantra Dev, a kurmi OBC, also the state’s Jal Shakti minister, none appears to have a clue on the likely party pick.

“Since 2014, it has become difficult to read the party plan. That’s because despite widespread consultations, only a handful are involved in the final selection and that means scope for information leak is negligible,” a party leader said.

After completing an eventful three years in office – Swatantra Dev, a kurmi OBC, and the Jal Shakti minister in Yogi 2.0 government now, tendered his resignation on Tuesday from the state chief’s post, thus paving way for an announcement on his replacement soon. Apart from state chief, several other party positions are vacant in the BJP. With the term of the current chief officially over, an entire new state body is expected to be in place soon.

Congress state chief Ajay Kumar Lallu too resigned on March 15, after the poll debacle. Here too, a new chief is expected to ring in changes.

Congress spokesman Anshu Awasthi said an announcement would soon be made. “The announcement will happen soon,” he added. The BSP has decided that instead of three state coordinators, 12 leaders would oversee the party expansion across six sectors.

Manish Chandra Pandey is a Lucknow-based assistant editor with Hindustan Times’ political bureau in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Along with political reporting, he loves to write off beat/human interest stories that people connect with. Manish also covers departments. He feels he has a lot to learn not just from veterans but from the newcomers who make him realise that there is so much to unlearn ...view detail

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