India, June 28 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party may have unveiled its new Uttar Pradesh organisational team with an eye on the 2027 Assembly elections, but several appointments have already triggered murmurs within the party and sparked a debate over the criteria adopted for the reshuffle. Party insiders and political observers are questioning why the leadership repeatedly highlighted a set of organisational benchmarks for the new team if several appointments were eventually made on the basis of proximity to senior leaders and recommendations. The biggest controversy surrounds the inclusion of four members of the Legislative Council. Sources said the party had decided that leaders who had become MPs, MLAs or MLCs would be relieved from organisational responsibilities and assigned other roles.
However, MLCs Satyapal Saini, Mohit Beniwal, Dharmendra Singh and Vijay Shivhare have been retained in the new team, raising questions over the criteria used for their selection. There is also growing curiosity within party circles over whose recommendation helped the four MLCs secure another term in the organisation despite the stated policy. The BJP had publicly projected that the new state team was being finalised after months of deliberations and a rigorous selection process. Multiple meetings were held between Lucknow and Delhi over three to four months to decide the composition of the team. One of the key principles discussed was that office-bearers who had become legislators would be moved out of organisational posts. While the policy has been implemented in several cases, the retention of the four MLCs has led to allegations of a double standard. Political analysts say the new team neither reflects the much-publicised benchmarks nor includes many faces with significant electoral influence.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.