Pankaj Chaudhary will be new president of Uttar Pradesh BJP, to be elected unopposed; is a close confidant of PM Modi and Amit Shah
Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary will be the new president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP. He filed his nomination at the BJP office in Lucknow on Saturday. Since the deadline for filing nominations was 3 PM, and no one else filed a nomination, Chaudhary, a close confidant of Modi and Amit Shah, is now set to be elected unopposed.
Pankaj Chaudhary hails from Gorakhpur, which is Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's stronghold. He is a seven-time MP from Maharajganj and belongs to the Kurmi community, which falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The appointment of the UP BJP state president was originally scheduled for January 15, 2025, but the matter was delayed due to the Maharashtra elections, then the UP by-elections, and subsequently the Bihar elections.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, along with 10 other leaders, proposed Chaudhary's name. Union Minister Piyush Goyal will announce the new president's name at Lohia National Law University on Sunday. Besides Goyal, Vinod Tawde also arrived in Lucknow from Delhi on Saturday for the state president's election.
Earlier, amidst the suspense surrounding the new UP BJP chief, Minister Swatantra Dev Singh had made a significant revelation without naming anyone. Singh had said that the new president has been a Member of Parliament seven times and is popular in his community. He has also held important responsibilities within the party. We will announce the name after the selection, he added. Swatantra Dev's statement was a clear indication towards Pankaj Chaudhary.
Prakash Kumar Pandey