The list of state executive and regional presidents of Bharatiya Janata Party has been released. Ashok Chaurasia has been made the regional president of Kashi region. He has been given the responsibility of the party on 71 assembly seats in 16 districts. Ashok Chaurasia is known as a grassroots worker and a settled leader in BJP. For the last 12 years, he has been fulfilling the responsibility of Regional General Secretary of Kashi region and is the party in-charge of Jaunpur. Ashok Chaurasia, who is known as a leader who understands the nuances of the organization and creates harmony between new and old workers, comes from Barai community. He has many other businesses including his coaching institute by the name of Sankalp Tutorials. He is also recognized as a strong businessman.
In the Prime Minister's parliamentary constituency Varanasi, the party has handed over the responsibility of the metropolitan unit to Pradeep Agrahari and the leadership of the district organization to Ram Sakal Patel. Now by giving the responsibility of Kashi region to Ashok Chaurasia, BJP has given a direct message that the backward society is on top of their priority.
Kashi Journalist Association President Arun Mishra sees this as a cut to the PDA formula of the Samajwadi Party. He believes that BJP is making a strategy to go to 2027 elections with the help of OBC politics. Along with this, Arun Mishra also says that Ashok Chaurasia is an old and expert player of the organization. He has been the regional general secretary in the organization for 12 years and has a good rapport with the workers up to the booth level.
Political analyst Vijay Narayan considers this decision of BJP more important from the point of view of upper caste politics than OBC politics. Vijay Narayan says that the party's message to the upper caste is that you should keep the party strong from behind. Leadership will be of OBC and you will be in the role of supporter.
Barring Misir Pokhara and Pan Dariba of Varanasi, Barai community is not a big vote bank in Purvanchal. About 50 thousand voters in Banaras come from Chaurasia community. Except for Banaras and Mirzapur, their number is less than that in other districts of Purvanchal.
Senior journalist Ajay Rai says that it is true that the Barai community is not very strong numerically, but this will send a very strong message to the OBC community. There will be positive thinking about BJP among the small pockets (vote banks) in the OBC community, whose number is between 40-50 thousand. In fact, the biggest reason for BJP's vote bank slipping in the Lok Sabha elections was the shift of such small vote banks to SP. In such a situation, the election of the new regional president of Kashi region by the party is an attempt to correct the mistake made in the Lok Sabha elections.
