Amid growing unrest within the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the party’s state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state capital on Wednesday.
The meeting came a day after Chaudhary and the state’s Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya held separate meetings with BJP national president JP Nadda on Tuesday.
There were signs of dissent within the BJP’s state unit following the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, which saw the BJP’s tally fall to just 33 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh from 62 in 2019. The Samajwadi Party (SP) beat the BJP with 37 seats, while the Congress Party, in alliance with the SP, won an additional six seats.
The same day, Maurya reiterated his statement that the Sangathan (political party/organisation) is bigger than the government. “The party/organisation is bigger than the government. The suffering of party members is my suffering. No one is bigger than the party/organisation. Party members are our pride,” he posted on X.
He had made similar remarks at an earlier state party meeting also attended by Nadda in what was seen as a thinly veiled attack on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, suggesting he was ignoring party workers and running the state through bureaucracy. Adityanath had blamed the state’s election defeat on “overconfidence” and suggested the party was unable to effectively counter the Union of India’s election campaign.
Sources said the BJP’s central leadership had told Maurya to refrain from making any comments that could affect the party’s future.With senior party leaders speaking to both Maurya and Chaudhary, it appears the party is taking steps to better position itself to tackle a resurgent opposition in the state.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Adityanath held a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to delegate responsibility for the by-elections to 10 assembly seats. His deputies Maurya and Brajesh Pathak did not participate in the meeting. The Election Commission is expected to announce the dates for the by-elections soon.
Besides Maurya, Ramesh Chandra Mishra, the party’s Badlapur MP, had also said a few days ago that the party was not in a good state and would face difficulties in 2027. He had urged the central leadership to intervene, but in a subsequent video he said he was misled.
Earlier, BJP state legislator Devendra Pratap Singh also wrote a letter to Adityanath, questioning the functioning of the government and alleging that party members were not being respected.
Sanjay Nishad, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and leader of the Nishad Party, on Monday raised the issue of “misusing bulldozers on the poor”. “If you eradicate the poor, they will eradicate us in politics too,” he said.
Under pressure, the state government has put on hold two recent decisions – demolition of the Kukrail River project and digitisation of teacher attendance in government schools.
A senior BJP leader said the party leadership is not seeking to pin blame on anyone for the Uttar Pradesh election defeat. Rather, it is seeking to stabilize the party while avoiding any personal finger-pointing. There are signs that the BJP is trying to avoid visible internal infighting at this point and project an image of unity and continuity.
As Maurya continues his attacks, Adityanath has been meeting individual and small group leaders from across the state, photos of which have been posted on the chief minister’s official “X” account in a move seen as a subtle signal that he maintains influence over the government.
“When Maurya said he feels the pain of party workers, is he not the deputy chief minister? Is he someone outside the government? The government does not mean only the chief minister. As the deputy chief minister, he should have also addressed the concerns, if any, of party workers and not spread negativity,” a BJP source close to Adityanath said.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav alleged that there was “internal strife” within the BJP, which was harming the wellbeing of the people. “Amidst the power struggle within the BJP, governance and administration of Uttar Pradesh has been put on the back burner. What the BJP used to do to other parties, they are now doing within their own party. That is why the BJP is mired in internal strife. No one in the BJP has the people in mind,” he said in an X post.
Reacting to this, Maurya posted, “BJP has a strong organisation and administration both at the Centre and in the state government. SP’s PDA is a scam. SP’s mob action cannot happen again in Uttar Pradesh. BJP will see a repeat of 2017 in the 2027 state assembly elections.”
© Indian Express Ltd.
First uploaded: 17 July 2024 20:54 IST
