BJP kicks off Deendayal Upadhyay prog in UP to train cadre for key elections

Lucknow: The BJP on Saturday kicked off the party-centric Deendayal Upadhyay Training Programme in UP, swinging the arc-lights back on the saffron outfit's strategic move to groom the new cadre while resetting the old guards ahead of the upcoming election cycles in UP and beyond.The programme, seen as a warm-up exercise for the UP elections next year, primarily envisages specific training modules for the party workers—from state to district and subsequently to ‘mandals' at the level of Assembly constituencies. Sources said the training has been designed to arm the workers with political agendas to take on the Samajwadi Party and the Congress.The training will be held over three days at the state level, followed by two-day district-level sessions. The mandal-level training will run for a day while booth-level classes will be organised in two sessions. The training will be overseen by BJP national secretary Om Prakash Dhankhar at the national level, while the state level exercise will be monitored by state general secretaries Amar Pal Mauryra and Anup Gupta.Dhankhar described the exercise as a continuous process of refinement, stating that individual development leads to organisational strength. Calling the campaign a significant step towards organisational empowerment, he said it would enrich party workers at the levels of ideology, conduct and leadership. UP BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary said the training aims to make party workers ideologically strong, disciplined and committed to public service. Sources said workers have been asked to step up the party's "all-inclusive" narrative to counter the opposition's Picchda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) narrative, which dented the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.A senior BJP functionary associated with the exercise said that the party will rely mainly on Hindu social coalition to cut across caste lines. This, sources said, will fix the vulnerabilities which stood exposed in the 2024 LS elections when certain non-OBC and a few Dalit groups drifted away from the BJP.The BJP's counter to PDA—projecting an "all-inclusive" development plank—attempts to shift discourse from caste arithmetic to welfare delivery and nationalism, analysts said.Naming the programme after Deen Dayal Upadhyay, one of the foremost party ideologues, highlights symbolism since BJP has been projecting him as a champion of "integral humanism", emphasising social harmony, national uplift, and the uplift of the last person.A senior BJP leader said the party is keen to reassert welfare-centric messaging and strengthen booth-level mobilisation at the grassroots. UP BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai said the programme is another bold projection of the BJP as the party which works on ideology and not on caste politics. Sources said that workers would also be trained in taking the achievements of the Modi and Yogi govts more aggressively in the upcoming days.By foregrounding PM Modi and CM Yogi, sources said, the BJP plans to reinforce a leadership-centric campaign model.