Lucknow, Nov. 28 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which named 14 more district presidents on Wednesday, appears to have fast-tracked the process to appoint a new state chief whose selection is long overdue. The buzz on this front has grown stronger in the run-up to the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and the 2026 panchayat polls even as the party weighs various factors and fine-tunes the caste matrix to counter the Samajwadi Party's PDA formula. With the incumbent Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary's tenure having ended in January 2024, the names of senior BJP leaders are doing the rounds for the post, including one of the two deputy CMs in the state. While the front-runners have long years of organisational experience, proximity to chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the party's state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh will be another factor in the new state chief's selection. "Soon, the state BJP will get its new state president. The appointment will not be delayed any more," said state BJP spokesperson Hero Bajpai. After the selection of 14 new district presidents, the total number of appointments at this level has reached 84. Fourteen organisational districts are awaiting their new presidents. The district presidents will, in turn, elect the new state BJP president. Prominent names in circulation for the top post are UP minister Dharampal Singh, Union minister of state BL Verma (both OBCs), and former Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria, sitting MLC Vidya Sagar Sonkar (both Dalits), former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and former Basti MP Harish Dwivedi (both Brahmins). State BJP general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla is the latest addition to the list. "At present OBC leaders of the party are front- runners for the top post. To counter the Samajwadi Party's PDA caste matrix, the BJP's list of district presidents also has more OBCs," said a senior BJP leader. A section of the state BJP wants the new state president before the beginning of Kharmas, a period during which auspicious activities are avoided by some Hindus. This period starts on December 16, 2025, and ends on January 14, 2026. As panchayat polls are also due early next year, the state BJP leadership wants the new state president without any further delay. The BJP is looking at the panchayat polls for a course correction after the less performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP's seriousness about contesting the panchayat polls under a new state chief is not without reason. In four successive poll victories in Uttar Pradesh-2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and 2017, 2022 assembly polls - the BJP managed the most diverse representation minus Muslims. The party succeeded in keeping intact its caste umbrella, broadly non-Jatav Dalits, non-Yadav OBCs and upper castes. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the SP's PDA plank succeeded in bringing a large chunk of OBC and Dalits into its fold. The BJP's tally of seats in Uttar Pradesh came down to 33 in the last Lok Sabha election from 62 in 2019. The most resounding defeat was in the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency, the nerve centre of saffron politics revolving around the temple town of Ayodhya....