BJP eyes GenNext, cuts age cap by 20 years of Uttar Pradesh district chiefs

LUCKNOW: As BJP prepares for its next big internal election exercise for mandal and district presidents in Uttar Pradesh , the party has put a cap on the age of candidates who have applied for the posts this year.


While the district chiefs, known as zila adhyaksh, cannot be older than 50 years, which is down by 20 years from the earlier 70, mandal chiefs cannot be older than 40 years.

The age bar for internal selection comes for the first time in last two decades in any state for the BJP.

BJP has received more than 10,000 forms for 1,915 mandal president posts while the elections for district presidents will begin on November 20.

The move comes ahead of UP elections due in 2022.

"Seeing the overwhelming response to our membership drive, we have increased 'sangathanamak' (organisational) works. The blocks are further divided into 27,779 sectors which, too, will have party posts to encourage people joining us. And to lead such people, we need younger people to handle the reach of our central schemes and assist our ministers in implementation of such schemes which requires foot patrolling," said UP BJP general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla.

The party has also made fields like caste, current responsibility, education and past record mandatory for declaration by members to ensure a comprehensive background check and equal representation of every community in UP.

The party said it will also put thrust on increasing women representation. At present, there are only two women district presidents - in Auraiya and Kanpur.

For its internal elections, BJP has introduced posts of district presidents in several towns in BSP pocket boroughs of Lalganj and Macchlishahr in Jaunpur.