After Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, another senior BJP leader and Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya said that the BJP might change its chief minister after the assembly elections in 2022, but it would be decided by the party’s central leadership.

“All possibilities are there post Assembly elections in 2022. We can have a new face or Yogi Adityanath can continue as Chief Minister of UP. The decision will be taken by BJP central leadership or the legislature party of the BJP,” Maurya told a select group of journalists in Lucknow on Monday.

To buttress his point, Maurya said that the 2017 assembly elections were contested without projecting anyone as the CM candidate. “After the election, the Central leadership chose Yogi as the CM and he is now our leader, and the party will contest the 2022 elections under his leadership. It does not imply that we cannot have a new CM. The BJP leadership will take  a call on the situation then,” he said, hinting that if after elections the BJP gets a majority and backwards are in a dominant position, they might ask for change in leadership.

This is not new in the BJP as it happened in Assam where the BJP contested election under the leadership of former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal but after the elections Himanta Biswa Sarma was declared CM by the leadership.

Swami Prasad Maurya is the second UP minister after Keshav Prasad Maurya to prophecise  that the BJP central leadership would take a call on the next CM. Today’s statement assumed significance as there was a feeling that people from Backward castes were neglected in the Yogi government and the anger might prove costly for the BJP. Mauryas are backwards by caste.

Backwards account for around 32 per cent of votes in UP and were in a dominant position in the caste matrix in the state. The combination of Backwards and Upper Castes could catapult any party to power.