Eying Jat land, BJP picks UP chief for East-West alignment

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, August 25: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday appointed Uttar Pradesh Minister Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary as the state unit chief of the party. The move has come after the restive Jat had given the saffron outfit jitters in the 2022 UP Assembly elections, with the BJP seeking to address the longstanding grievances of the formidable land-holding community of the western parts of the state.

For over a year while the farmers laid siege to the national capital against the contentious Farm Laws, Chaudhary had been a regular in the parleys of the BJP leadership to calm the nerves of the Jats in the western parts of UP.

Sikh farmers had camped on the Haryana border with Delhi to oppose the Farm Laws.

Jats on the other hand were holding their grounds at the Ghazipur border on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

With the UP Assembly polls approaching, the BJP leaders had begun admitting that the party would have to forget 60 per cent of the support base among the Jat voters.

Yet, the top brass of the BJP pushed the Union Minister of State Sanjeev Balyan to counter the farmer activists and drum up support for the pro-farmer measures of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre.

“Chaudhary would tirelessly work to carry the instructions of the BJP leadership. He was a regular at the meetings called by the farmers unit of the party,” said a senior BJP functionary.

The BJP’s known Jat faces from the western parts of UP were Balyan and Satya Pal Singh. Both have been giant killers, defeating Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

But neither made the cut for the state leadership of the organisation.

“The Jats complained that the community backed the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections fully, but the party ignored representation to the community in the ministries in New Delhi and Lucknow. At least, the UP BJP chief could have been a Jat leader. This would have ensured east-west political alignment of the party in the state,” said another BJP functionary.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath hails from eastern parts of the state. Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary represents the western parts of UP.

With the BJP now belatedly making amends to previously ignoring the political aspirations of Jats by getting Jagdeep Dhankar elected as Vice President and Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary as the UP chief, the saffron outfit is hoping for a 100 per cent strike rate at about 40 Lok Sabha seats dominated by the caste in western parts of the state, Haryana and Rajasthan.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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