Lucknow, Dec. 14 -- After Brahmins, the Bharatiya Janata Party has had the maximum number of its presidents in Uttar Pradesh from the Kurmi community, the most dominant caste after the Yadavs. With his name set to be officially announced on Sunday, Pankaj Chaudhary will become the fourth Kurmi leader in the last 45 years to head the party in Uttar Pradesh. He will be the 15th individual to hold the post of UP BJP president, although this will be the seventeenth election with Karaj Mishra having been elected thrice consecutively, the only leader to secure this position more than once. The leadership of the BJP's organisational structure in UP was historically dominated by Brahmins from 1980 to 2017. However, in the past decade, the OBC leaders have become increasingly prominent after the Other Backward Classes consolidated in favour of the party helping win the maximum Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and storm to power in UP in 2017 with a thumping majority. So far, the party has appointed leaders from various castes and groups, including Lodh, Maurya, Rajput, Kurmi, Bhumihar and Jat. A Scheduled Caste (SC) or a woman leader is yet to get the opportunity to serve the party as its state president. A maximum number of leaders heading the party in UP were Brahmins. Starting from Madhav Prasad Tripathi, the first president in 1980 to Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey who continued till July 2019, as many as six leaders from this community have led the party while Kalraj Mishra alone was elected thrice between 1992 and 1996. Other Brahmin faces were Keshari Nath Tripathi, Ramapati Tripathi and Laxmikant Bajpai. The second biggest number came from the Kurmi community spread across the state and concentrated in eastern and central UP. Elected in 2000, Om Prakash Singh was the first Kurmi leader to become the BJP state president in UP. Then came Vinay Katiyar in 2004 and Swatantra Dev Singh in 2019. Pankaj Chaudhary will be the fourth leader from the Kurmi community to lead the party....