LUCKNOW, Dec. 12 -- The much-awaited election of Uttar Pradesh's BJP unit new chief will take place on December 14 (Sunday) in the presence of central election officer and Union minister Piyush Goyal. Former Union minister and BJP's state organisational election officer Mahendra Nath Pandey late on Thursday night announced that nomination papers for the election of the state president will be filed at the party's state headquarters from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm on December 13 in the presence of party's national general secretary and central election observer Vinod Tawde. The election process will be completed and the state president will be elected on December 14 by central election officer Piyush Goyal. The incumbent UP BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary ended in January 2024 and the election of the new state president was overdue. According to BJP sources, the party's central leadership wanted to complete the election process of the new state president before PM Narendra Modi's proposed visit to Lucknow on December 25 to inaugurate Rashtra Prerna Sthal. "At present, OBC leaders of the party are front runners for the top post. To counter the Samajwadi Party's caste matrix of the PDA, the BJP's list of district presidents also has more OBCs," said a senior BJP leader. The party is also viewing panchayat polls as an opportunity for a major course correction after its below par performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh. In a bid to counter the Samajwadi Party's PDA (Pichhda, Dalits and Alpsankhyak) formula, the BJP too will focus on the local caste matrix at the mandal and village level in panchayat polls. The party's seriousness about the panchayat polls under the new state president 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, in the four polls in Uttar Pradesh. However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the SP's PDA plank succeeded in bringing a large chunk of OBC and Dalits into its fold, dealing a blow to the BJP. 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 of centre saffron politics revolving around the temple town of Ayodhya....