BJP is all set to have an upper caste leader with an RSS past as the new state president.

The party, after giving the key Leader of Opposition's post to an Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) cadre Prem Kumar, will make an upper caste member its BJP president in an attempt to consolidate its traditional vote bank.

Sources said the tenure of present BJP state president Mangal Pandey ends on January 15 and chances are slim that he would be given an extension keeping in mind the performance of the party in the Assembly elections.

Pandey's replacement gains more importance, as his mentor and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, is likely to be shifted to national politics through Rajya Sabha. During the 2015 Assembly elections when party MP R.K. Singh had alleged "poll tickets were being sold", he did not name any leader but there was clear indications that he meant the state party leadership.

The tenure of a party president is usually three years. Except in 1998 when there was a contest for the post, it's a tradition of the BJP central leadership to name the state presidents of the party.

However, there are several BJP leaders from the upper caste with RSS link waiting in queue to grab the coveted post.

A state BJP leader said: "There is a vacuum in the second-rung leadership in the state BJP. There's no one to lead after former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav like chief minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasadhave in their parties. In such a situation the RSS would like to have its men as the new president."

There are many leaders from the RSS stable, including Maharajganj MP Janardhan Singh Sigriwal, Rajendra Singh, who unsuccessfully contested the November elections from Dinara, former MLC Harendra Pratap, leader Vinod Narayan Jha and others in the queue, who could be elevated to the party president post.

The party would get a new president by March.

However, a BJP MLA said: "There are two Union ministers from the Rajput community in the Modi cabinet from Bihar (Radha Mohan Singh and Rajeev Pratap Rudy). Brahmin is the only upper caste, which has no representation in his cabinet from Bihar and in such a situation Mangal Pandey, a Brahmin, will be replaced by a Brahmin in all probability."