Keshav Maurya has been elected as the new Uttar Pradesh BJP chief.
Highlights
- Phoolpur lawmaker Keshav Maurya elected new Uttar Pradesh BJP Chief
- RSS was keen on Maurya taking charge in U.P, say sources
- Maurya, a member of Keori caste, shows BJP's push for lower caste votes
The BJP has picked a new chief for Uttar Pradesh, which votes next year, and will be key to determining who wins the next general election in 2019.
Keshav Maurya, 47, replaces Laxmikant Bajpai as the president of the BJP in India's most populous state, which will vote early next year.
Like his party's top leader - Prime Minister Narendra Modi - Mr Maurya sold tea in his youth at his father's stall in their village.
Mr Maurya is a Lok Sabha member from Phoolpur in Allahabad. Sources said the BJP's ideological mentor, the RSS, whose cadres play a huge role in campaigning, was keen on Mr Maurya.
As a member of the backward Keori caste, Mr Maurya is instrumental in the BJP's determined push for lower caste votes in Uttar Pradesh. BJP President Amit Shah reportedly weighed that against the odds of annoying the party's traditional upper caste supporters. The Keoris are seen as less aggressive than castes like the Yadavs or Kurmis - a member of either could have pushed the envelope too far, party sources said.
Mr Maurya was a full-time pracharak or worker of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and for years held charge of the Kanshi region which includes Varanasi, the PM's constituency.
BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said: "We are now battle ready for 2017."
Uttar Pradesh elects 80 members to the Lok Sabha - the BJP won 72 of those in the general election in 2014. Next year, the BJP hopes to displace Akhilesh Yadav, the 42-year-old chief Minister and his Samajwadi Party.
To do that, it wants to retain its hold over the Brahmins and upper castes, accrue new support from the backward castes, and gain big among the Dalits, who make up approximately 20 per cent of the state's population.
Earlier this week, the PM launched a collateral-free bank loan scheme for Dalits, and his government has been paying rich tribute to Dr BR Ambedkar, Dalit icon and founding father, with a string of high-profile events to mark his 125th birth anniversary.