Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya may contest from his traditional seat Sirathu in the upcoming assembly elections. The fight against the OBC face in the BJP assumes significance at a time when several community leaders have left the party in the past several days.
Sirathu assembly is in Kaushambi district and polling will be held in the fifth phase.
Also, highly placed sources in the party said that the Brahmin face and second deputy CM Dinesh Sharma is likely to contest from one of the three constituencies in Lucknow.
Sources said the BJP was also expected to field Maurya as the OBC sub-caste face of the party in the state and use him aggressively across the state.
Yadavs may have predominantly leaned towards the Samajwadi Party, but the BJP, the other half of the sub-caste among the OBCs, is targeting this election.
Senior party leaders said it was another attempt at social engineering when the opposition was targeting the party on the sentiments of these two castes.
Maurya became an MLA for the first time from Sirathu assembly seat in 2012. Till then this seat was considered as a stronghold of Bahujan Samaj Party. A strong OBC face, Maurya was given a chance to contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Phulpur, known as Jawaharlal Nehru’s constituency, where he also won.
In 2016, Maurya was given the charge of leading the state unit in the assembly elections. The party won a landslide victory and Maurya was rewarded for his tireless efforts. He was given a chance to contest the MLC elections and was made the Deputy CM in the Yogi Adityanath-led government.
Maurya has been associated with the RSS and its affiliated VHP since before contesting his first MLA election.
Sharma, on the other hand, was also part of a group called by UP in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan to pacify the Brahmin community, who spoke of the community being angry with the BJP.
“It is most likely to be Lucknow North that he won from Congress in 2012,” sources said. Sharma is the Brahmin face of the party and had occupied the post of national vice president in 2014. He was earlier the Mayor of Lucknow.
BJP may announce the first list of candidates for the UP assembly elections on January 15.
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