Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary was on Saturday elected unopposed as Uttar Pradesh BJP president, the party banking on his Kurmi background to court the Other Backward Classes before the 2027 Assembly elections.

Piyush Goyal, Union industry minister and the party’s organisational election officer, is expected to announce Pankaj's appointment formally on Sunday.

The 59-year-old minister’s was the only nomination filed on Saturday. His proposers included chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the outgoing state BJP president, Bhupendra Chaudhary.

Before Saturday’s election, state BJP general secretary and state animal husbandry minister Dharampal Singh and Rajya Sabha member Baburam Nishad too were being touted as contenders.

However, party sources said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had approved the candidature of Pankaj.

"(Pankaj) Chaudhary suits us in the current situation. We have to break the unity of the OBC voters at any cost in 2027," a BJP leader said, speaking off the record.

"He has a full year to work on this. He is expected to appoint a key Yadav leader of the party as his general secretary to try and blunt the Samajwadi Party’s prospects."

Pankaj, who studied up to Class XII, owns a company that produces a popular brand of ayurvedic oil. He began his political career as a corporator from Gorakhpur in the 1980s before becoming MP from Maharajganj in 1991.

He was re-elected from the constituency in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014, 2019 and 2024. According to his election affidavit, he had ₹1.41 crore in 2004, which had grown to ₹41.9 crore in 2024.

"I will follow the instructions of my party leaders and fulfil whatever task is assigned to me," Pankaj said.