Having sensed that the Prime Minister's so-called package for farmers announced in the FY17 budget and elsewhere have failed to impose on experts and win the country's 270 million farmers (the biggest vote bank), the BJP has begun to put its fortunes for the forthcoming state elections in Punjab, UP, and other states into the hands of its leaders with a strong RSS past and birth affiliation to the OBC and Dalit communities. This became evident in its announcement on Friday of five new state presidents. Of the five, two are OBC while the third is a Dalit. Naming Keshav Prasad Maurya as chief of the BJP in the key state of Uttar Pradesh, which goes to polls next year, BJP general secretary Arun Singh said: "He is an MP and worked as a whole timer of the Sangh for 14 years. He actively participated in organisation-related movements like cow protection and the Ram Janmabhoomi." Singh added: "He (Maurya) comes from a backward community and a very poor family. He sold newspapers and tea for a living. He is the son of a farmer. He wrested Phulpur for the BJP for the first time. He will be able to take along everyone." OBC leaders Dharampal Singh and Swatantra Dev were also in the running for the top party job in the state but Maurya's activism is said to have tipped the scale in his favour. Similarly, Union Minister and Dalit leader Vijay Sampla as head of its Punjab unit. Born in an ordinary Dalit family that found it difficult to make ends meet, he was only 14 when his father died. He could study only up to Class X, as he and his elder brother had to shoulder the responsibility for the family of five, including his mother and a younger sister. Sampla worked as a labourer in Jalandhar first and then moved to Gulf countries, where he worked as an assistant to a plumber from 1992-97. He returned and started a cement shop. From the cement shop he set out on his political journey. Sampla first became an RSS member, then joined the BJP in 1998 and started his career as a village sarpanch. He shot to prominence during the Talhan gurdwara row in 2003 when Jalandhar was under curfew for a fortnight, one Dalit was killed and violent clashes took place. Sampla mobilised opinion among the Dalits. As the Congress's Dalit leaders of Doaba region, including Choudhary Jagjit Singh and Mahinder Singh Kaypee, could not do much for the downtrodden, Sampla and his supporters did not leave the village till the row was resolved. The Dalit community has a significant presence in Punjab, particularly in Jalandhar's Doaba region of Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala, and constitutes around 38 per cent of the votes. Since 2003, Sampla has come to be known as a Dalit leader not only in Doaba but also in the state In Karnataka, Shimoga MP and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is back at the helm of state presidentship, MLA and OBC leader K Laxman in Telangana and former MP Tapir Gao in Arunachal Pradesh. BJP sources said Yeddyurappa's appointment, despite the controversies he is embroiled in, suggests that Shah wants to use his organisational skills and experience to return the party to power in Karnataka when it goes to polls in 2018. A Lingayat leader and a staunch RSS man, he led the BJP to a historic victory in the state in 2008 and became Chief Minister. Clearly, an RSS background has become vital for anyone to climb in the party hierarchy. Last year, Kummanam Rajasekharan, considered a hardline Hindu leader in Kerala, was appointed the state unit chief. In West Bengal, Dilip Ghosh, a leader with an RSS background, was given charge of the party unit.