Why BJP Let Mohan Yadav Pick MP Chief, But Won’t Do The Same For Yogi In Uttar Pradesh

Over a year ago, the two neighbouring states in the Hindi heartland gave completely opposite results to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha (LS) elections.

On one hand, there was Madhya Pradesh (MP), which gave the BJP a clean sweep, winning all 29 seats. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh (UP) delivered the biggest jolt to the BJP.

In UP, the party’s tally dropped to 33 seats from 62 in 2019, while in MP, it increased its seat count from 28 to 29 by breaching the Chhindwara bastion of former MP Chief Minister (CM) Kamal Nath.

Since then, the BJP organisations in the two states have trodden completely different paths. The MP BJP witnessed consolidation between power centres, while the UP BJP remains mired in internal dissonance.

A similar difference is likely to be reflected in the selection of the BJP presidents in the two states. The MP BJP got its new president last week, while the UP BJP will have to wait a little longer.

Who is MP BJP president

The BJP in charge of organisational elections in MP, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, announced the name of Hemant Khandelwal as the state BJP president on 2 July.

Khandelwal is a two-time member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Betul and earlier served as a Member of Parliament from Betul after winning a bypoll in 2008 following the demise of his father, Vijay Khandelwal.

Thus, Khandelwal carries a political legacy from his late father, who won the LS elections from Betul four consecutive times. However, after the 2008 delimitation, when the Betul constituency was declared reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), he switched to assembly elections.

Khandelwal is a low-profile leader who is known only within the BJP organisation and his constituency. For outsiders, he is still known as the son of Vijay Khandelwal, without establishing any name for himself.

Khandelwal served in the BJP organisation as Betul district president from 2010 to 2013 and won the 2013 Assembly election from Betul. However, in 2018, when the BJP lost power in the state, Khandelwal also lost his seat.

Khandelwal bounced back with the BJP in the 2023 Assembly elections and became an MLA from Betul again. Since then, he has maintained close relations with the newly appointed MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav.

How and why he was chosen

Khandelwal is known to enjoy good relations with most leaders and hence, he was elected unopposed. However, this does not mean that there were no rivals eyeing the state party president's post.

As per a BJP insider, the 'Brahmin lobby' as well as many ST leaders were trying to have the president from their respective castes. Among the Brahmin leaders, former MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra and Minister of State (MoS), Durgadas Uikey from the ST community, were the frontrunners.

However, the BJP wanted to maintain its balance of having the CM from Other Backward Classes (OBC) and the party president from the General category, as was the case when Vishnu Dutt Sharma, from the Brahmin community, occupied the post for over five years, another party insider said.

Notably, MP already has two Deputy CMs, Jagdish Devda, a member of the Dalit community, and Rajendra Shukla from the Brahmin community. Hence, the chances of continuing with a Brahmin BJP chief were very few, giving Khandelwal an opportunity.

Moreover, he is considered close to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and has good organisational experience. Given the rising involvement of Sangh in the BJP affairs, Khandelwal became everybody's choice.

"MP BJP had a lot of factionalism. To tackle it, Khandelwal ji has been chosen as he can balance all workers, being a favourite of every leader and is well-versed with the organisational work," a BJP worker from Morena told Swarajya.

The Mohan Yadav angle

While the primary aim of appointing Khandelwal is to unify an organisation fragmented by factionalism, his elevation also serves a secondary but significant purpose: reinforcing Mohan Yadav’s authority as CM.

Yadav ascended to the top post by replacing Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the BJP’s longest-serving CM. His rise was not without resentment — several senior leaders viewed themselves as more deserving successors to Chouhan.

"Mohan Yadav is junior to many senior leaders, and hence, there were voices of rebellion. Khandelwal is very special to Yadav. His appointment sends a message that Yadav is the highest authority in MP," the Morena BJP worker added.

Explaining the connection between Yadav and Khandelwal, a BJP worker from Ujjain told Swarajya, "Yadav is considered the 'adopted child' of RSS stalwart Suresh Soni. Their bungalows are also adjacent to each other in Ujjain."

"Suresh Soni and Saudan Singh played an important role in bringing Khandelwal for the top post. They kept in mind Yadav's convenience while doing so," he added.

Thus, with Khandelwal, Yadav will be able to have the last say over the governance as well as organisational affairs in MP. "Khandelwal is Yadav's choice," said another BJP worker, affirming the CM's strengthened position.

UP's different story

While the MP BJP president has been chosen keeping CM Yadav's choice in mind, the same is unlikely to happen in UP. This is because, as a first-time CM, Yadav needed to embolden his authority amid voices of rebellion from senior leaders.

On the other hand, Yogi is serving his second term as UP CM and is so popular that any leader, even having grudges against his leadership, does not gather the courage to raise a voice of rebellion against him.

Thus, in UP, not the CM's position, but the organisation needs strengthening. This has been evident from the loss in the seat tally in the LS elections and no major reforms in the organisation even after that.

Another major difference between the two states is that, in MP, the BJP organisation and the government are quite aligned with each other, and hence, a BJP chief of CM Yadav's choice would further enhance coordination.

On the other hand, in UP, a separation between the government and the BJP organisation exists. Observers say that CM Yogi has deliberately maintained this to control BJP leaders and rein in the party cadre.

While the move has helped to keep the BJP cadre in discipline and prevent corruption to some extent, its repercussions are that the BJP workers often feel neglected under their own government.

"Karyakartaon (BJP workers) ki undekhi hui hai. They want a leader who prioritises their concerns and is not a 'yes man' of Yogi. Hence, it is very likely that the party chief will not be of Yogi's choice," a BJP worker from western UP told Swarajya.

What UP BJP needs

Ever since the BJP's main rival in UP, the Samajwadi Party (SP), launched the PDA (Pichhde, Dalit, Alpasankhyak and Adivasis) pitch to expand its voter base beyond Muslims and Yadavs to include OBCs and Dalits, the BJP has struggled to retain its voter base.

This was evident in the LS elections, where the BJP is believed to have lost a significant amount of OBC and Dalit votes, the communities that had been voting for the BJP in large numbers in the past decade.

This happened under the watch of an OBC party chief. When Bhupendra Chaudhary was appointed the UP BJP president in August 2022, it was believed that his connection with western UP and the Jats, an OBC caste, would help the BJP.

However, his leadership did not deliver the desired results. While Chaudhary will be replaced, the BJP is most likely to maintain the equation of having a General CM and an OBC or Dalit party chief, as has been the case since 2019.

The foremost target of the UP BJP is to win back these votes. To build confidence among these communities, the BJP has given more representation to them in the recently held organisational elections.

For instance, over one-third of the positions among the newly appointed 70 BJP district presidents are occupied by the OBCs. Similarly, the number of Scheduled Caste (SC) functionaries has also increased.

To further emphasise this messaging, the state president is also likely to be from these communities. However, some Brahmin names are also in the race. Notably, of the last five UP BJP presidents, two have been Brahmins and three were OBCs.

Yogi's choice

BJP insiders close to Yogi told Swarajya that while CM Yogi has some names in mind for the UP BJP president, he has already made peace with the fact that the next party chief will not be of his choice.

"The Centre does not want Yogi's man at the helm, it just wants Yogi to coordinate with the appointed person. Yogi has also made himself comfortable with this fact and is ready to coordinate with anyone who is appointed," the insider said.

However, when asked who actually is Yogi's choice, the foremost name to emerge was that of Swatantra Dev Singh. Before Chaudhary, Singh served as the UP BJP president for three years, leading the party to form the government in the state for the second consecutive time in 2022.

Currently, Singh is the Minister of Jal Shakti in the UP government and enjoys good relations with Yogi and hence, he is the CM's choice. While one BJP worker close to Singh said that he is also ready to take up this role, another BJP worker said that he is more interested in going to the Centre.

Explaining his rationale, the second worker told Swarajya, on the condition of anonymity, "Singh has good relations with Yogi but believes that these relations have deprived him of having good relations with Amit Shah, obstructing his political growth and hence, he wants a change of role."

Another BJP worker from eastern UP believes that Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya would be Yogi's choice. Explaining his belief, he said, "Yogi does not want a power tussle with Maurya in governance but values his organisational capabilities. He would be very happy to have him as the BJP chief."

Notably, when Maurya was the UP BJP president, the party came to power in the state in 2017. He was rewarded with the position of deputy CM and retained in that position even after losing his seat in the 2022 Assembly election.

Other than these two names, no other name emerged as Yogi's choice. Nonetheless, when it is less likely to have Yogi's choice as party chief, let's have a look at which names are under consideration by the BJP leadership.

The frontrunners

"The BJP is on the backfoot due to the PDA. Hence, the party chief is likely to be from Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) or the Dalit community," a BJP worker told Swarajya on the condition of anonymity.

He explained that the party is looking for options among Lodhs, Patels, Kurmis, Pals or Prajapatis. All these caste groups come under the OBC category and are considered more backward than prominent OBC castes like Yadavs.

The frontrunner is Dharmpal Singh, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Aonla in Bareilly district, and Minister of Animal Husbandry in the UP government. He is an OBC, hailing from the Lodhi community.

Another frontrunner is also from the Lodhi community. He is B L Verma, a Rajya Sabha member and MoS. However, he appears to be losing the race since former UP CM Kalyan Singh's son Rajveer Singh opposed his promotion, and the BJP does not want to compromise the legacy of Kalyan Singh for Verma, as per insiders.

Among other OBC leaders, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), Baburam Nishad and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti of the Nishad community, and Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), Ashok Kataria of the Gujjar community, are also in the race.

From the Dalit community, former Kaushambi MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, MLC Vidyasagar Sonkar, and former Etawah and Agra MP Dr Ramshankar Katheria are in the race for the UP BJP president post.

In light of recent incidents of growing Brahmin discontent with the BJP, due to cases like the Kaushambi suicide or the Etawah controversy, the party is also considering a Brahmin as the state chief. Among Brahmins, former Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma is the frontrunner.

Other than him, the names of former Basti MP Harish Dwivedi, MLC Govind Narayan Shukla, and former Kannauj MP Subrat Pathak are also being considered from the Brahmin community.

The complexities and delays

The appointment of the UP BJP president is getting delayed due to differing views of various stakeholders, from Yogi to Shah, and from the RSS to the central BJP leadership, on who the next state party chief should be.

The delay is compounded by the fact that the BJP is already struggling as an organisation in UP and has to face complex caste equations of the state amid rival SP's PDA pitch. The next party chief needs to be a solution to its problems, hence the delay.

Notably, starting the organisational elections from the booth level in December 2024, the BJP had appointed 70 of the 98 (organisational) district presidents by March 2025. But no progress has been made since then.

At the national level, the BJP has appointed 22 of the 37 (organisational) state presidents. As per the party constitution, the BJP needs more than half of the elected state presidents to begin the election of the national president.

Since that criterion has been fulfilled, it is believed that the BJP will appoint a national president first.

"The appointments of the BJP presidents of states like Karnataka, Gujarat and UP would be made only after the national president's appointment," the western UP BJP worker said.

This means that the UP BJP will have to wait a little longer to get a new chief.

"Logically, the new president should be from OBC or Dalit communities," political commentator Amit Yadav told Swarajya.

However, he added, "If the national president is an OBC, then Dinesh Sharma might get a chance for UP," suggesting that the appointment of the UP president after the national president can change the equations.

Nonetheless, one thing is clear: whether the UP BJP president is a Brahmin, OBC or a Dalit, he will not be a 'yes man' to Yogi, unlike MP, since the party is very clear about prioritising the organisational revamp in the state.