The BJP had won 71 of UP's 80 parliamentary seats in 2014. The sweep was credited to BJP chief Amit Shah's strategy and a Modi wave.
The BJP is likely to choose a backward caste leader to helm its Uttar Pradesh unit as it starts putting in place its strategy for the crucial assembly elections in 2017, sources said.
The party will elect a new state president in the coming days and among the front-runners are legislator Dharam Pal Singh Lodh and General Secretary of the state BJP, Swatandra Deo Singh. The current state president, Laxmikant Bajpai, is an upper caste Brahmin.
Closer to the assembly elections, the sources said, the party is expected to announce an upper caste leader as its chief ministerial candidate for the state, in a departure from its strategy in most recent state elections of not naming a presumptive chief minister.
In most state polls since its mega win in the 2014 national election, the BJP has not projected a chief ministerial candidate, banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its face to draw votes. The strategy was seen by many to have backfired in the recent Bihar elections.
The party believes projecting an upper caste leader for chief minister with a backward caste leader steering the party as state chief, will balance the BJP's appeal in India's most populous state, where caste has traditionally played a crucial role in determining election results.
The BJP had won 71 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 parliamentary seats in 2014. The sweep was credited to BJP chief Amit Shah's strategy and a Modi wave. PM Modi won from Varanasi and chose to represent Uttar Pradesh, giving up the other seat that he won from his home state Gujarat.
In recent civic elections, however, the party did not fare well in Uttar Pradesh. It lagged behind the ruling Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which made a comeback after being wiped out in the national election, winning not a single seat.
To take on the regional giants Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP will look at getting its caste balance right.
Front-runner for state chief, Dharam Pal Singh belongs to the Lodh community, which makes up about four per cent of the state's population. Lodhs have traditionally supported the BJP. Former chief minister Kalyan Singh is seen as the community's tallest leader, but he is now Governor of Rajasthan and out of state politics.