New Delhi, Sept. 4: The BJP wants to get back to its vote-winning ways in Uttar Pradesh but the party’s new man for the job has not fought an election after one failed attempt.

Rampati Tripathi, appointed president after Kesari Nath Tripathi resigned a few days ago in the wake of the May election setback, is a member of the legislative council, whose members are not elected directly by the people.

Tripathi was a general secretary in the state unit and is believed to be close to BJP chief Rajnath Singh. But he is not exactly the helmsman many leaders would love to have at a time when demoralised party workers have to be motivated for the fight ahead.

The BJP won only 51 of the 350 seats it contested this year. Of the losers, 146 candidates lost their security deposits.

Some leaders feel an “uninspiring” leader who lacks charisma or the credentials to lead the party is part of Rajnath’s “hidden agenda” to keep the state unit under his control.

But the elevation of Tripathi is the outcome of a consensus among senior leaders in Delhi to have a Brahmin president to counter Mayavati’s growing clout among upper castes. Tripathi is, however, not seen as strong enough to take on the big players.

Satish Chandra Mishra, the Brahmin face of the BSP, has acquired a big stature as the most important minister in the Mayavati government.

The BJP had established Brahmin leaders like Kalraj Mishra who headed the party in the past but some in the organisation wanted a fresh face. These leaders felt that people were fed up of seeing the same leaders over the past two decades.

The BJP has another reason to choose a Brahmin leader: there are far too many OBC leaders in key positions.

Om Prakash Singh, a Kurmi, is the legislature party leader. Vinay Katiyar, from the same caste, is a national general secretary. Former chief minister Kalyan Singh, a backward-caste spearhead who led the party in this year’s Assembly elections, has been made a national vice-president.

The party’s inability to build an effective leadership shows the limitations it faces in the run-up to the 2009 general elections. Most of its stalwarts from the state have had the opportunity to lead the party in the past but all of them failed to check the party’s steady decline after its phenomenal upsurge during the Babri Masjid agitation.

The 51 seats the party won in this year’s election meant it garnered only 16.97 per cent of the votes polled against the BSP’s 30.43 per cent and the Samajwadi Party’s 25.43 per cent.