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UP Election Results 2017: Caste could see Manoj Sinha ascend as BJP's CM

Deputy to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Sinha has impressed Modi with his efficiency

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BJP leader Manoj Sinha

Last Updated : Mar 11 2017 | 6:14 PM IST

Manoj Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha member and the telecom minister in the Narendra Modi government. He is a Bhumihar, a caste group preponderant in the neighbouring state of Bihar but numerically insignificant in Uttar Pradesh. This caste neutrality could work in Sinha’s favour when caste groups within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) compete to have one of their own ascend the chief ministerial post in Lucknow.

With the BJP clinching UP in a resounding victory, Sinha's name is in contention along with Keshav Prasad Maurya's.

Sinha, 57, is a civil engineer from the Banaras Hindu University. He was also a student leader and the president of the Kashi Hindu Vishwavidyalaya Students’ Union in 1982-83. Sinha was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996.

As minister of state for railways, Sinha started new trains to connect eastern Uttar Pradesh's towns and cities, which includes Prime Minister Modi's constituency of Varanasi. Deputy to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Sinha impressed Modi with his efficiency and was promoted to manage the telecom ministry with independent charge in the Cabinet reshuffle in July 2016.

A Member of Parliament from Ghazipur, Sinha was entrusted with delivering the seven Assembly segments that fall in his parliamentary constituency in the BJP’s kitty for the 2017 Assembly polls. The challenge he faced was enormous. In 2012, BJP didn’t win even one of these seats. Further, in the Samajwadi Party government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav appointed four of the party’s legislators from Ghazipur in his council of ministers.