Uttar Pradesh: Outsider entry creates ripples in BJP

Given the strength of BJP in the UP assembly , it would be able to win all four seats.As a matter of fact, the BJP leadership seeks to project Prasada as the party's Brahmin face to consolidate the upper caste community -- which accounts for 12% of the voting population -- in the UP assembly elections due next year.

Sharma happens to be a Bhumihar from east UP.While top BJP leaders refused to comment, sources said that the state unit was squarely averse to the very idea of party para-dropping an outsider as a key contender for a seat in council.

"This will further set the narrative of insider versus outsider within the BJP," said a senior party leader.Notably, Prasada, who was a Union minister in the previous Congress-led UPA government, had been facing a severe political crisis since 2014 when the BJP started its juggernaut under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

Prasada not only lost his traditional Dhaurahra in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections to Rekha Verma but managed to secure a little over 16% and 15% vote share.He also faced a defeat at the hands of BJP's Roshan Lal Verma from Tilhar assembly seat in 2017 UP assembly elections despite Congress cobbling up a pre-poll tie up with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party .

Verma had won the Tihar seat in 2012 on a BSP ticket.