UP, Bihar absent from re-election process of Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: BJP’s state units in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which contributed handsomely to the party’s ascendance to power at the Centre, did not participate in the re-election of Amit Shah as party president on Sunday due to delays in electing new state unit chiefs.

While the 2015 assembly polls was the reason for Bihar’s absence, the lack of consensus over a state unit chief to lead BJP in UP during 2017 assembly elections ensured that UP could not participate in the process of electing the national president. Now, Shah will decide their state unit chiefs. Both the state units had participated in the previous polls in 2013.

In an attempt to win Shah’s attention, three top contenders for the UP unit chief ’s chair — incumbent Laxmi Kant Bajpai, Swatantra Dev Singh and Darampal Singh Lodhi — queued up with ordinary party workers to greet Shah after his election.

As per several state unit leaders ET spoke to, three top BJP men — national joint secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, UP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal and national V-P in-charge of UP Om Mathur — appear to be backing different names for state unit chief. While Mathur, Bansal and Prakash sat together with Bajpai to finalise 51 district unit chiefs in a single meeting on January 11, they failed to evolve a consensus on UP BJP chief in the next 12 days.

As for Bihar, the organisational elections have been delayed due to assembly elections and the process would start from January 27. A section of state unit is against incumbent Mangal Pandey just because he is seen close to Sushil Modi.