Amid signs of trouble in the BJP’s state unit, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is likely to meet Governor Anandiben Patel later today. Sources told India Today that big changes are likely in the Yogi Cabinet, while key responsibilities in the party may be given to Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Apart from changes in the Cabinet, a big change is also possible in the BJP’s state unit. These changes will happen after the assembly by-elections.
Also, the reports suggest that there will be no change in the face of the chief minister in UP – the state where the saffron party suffered a major loss in the Lok Sabha elections.
Following the setback, tensions started coming out as some leaders including the deputy chief minister pointed to discontent among BJP workers. He has also suggested that he is not happy with the functioning of the government under Yogi.
This Sunday, the Uttar Pradesh BJP Executive Committee met in Lucknow. During the meeting, Maurya said the organisation was bigger than the government. It was seen as a direct attack on Yogi Adityanath. “Your pain is my pain too,” the deputy chief minister said. “The organisation was bigger than the government, is bigger, and will always be bigger.”
AajTak reported that during the executive meeting, there was no mention of issues against the bureaucracy that local leaders of the state had been voicing. During the elections, it was noted that many workers sat at home disappointed, unable to get people’s work done at police stations and tehsils, but the issue found no mention in the executive committee meeting.
Maurya met BJP’s national president JP Nadda on Tuesday. His meeting with Nadda carried significance following his “organisation is always bigger than government” remarks at the state party’s executive meeting on Sunday.
Nadda also attended the conclave in which the Chief Minister had blamed “over-confidence” for the electoral defeats in the state and suggested that the party could not effectively counter the opposition INDIA bloc’s campaign.
There has long been a buzz about less-than-warm relations between Maurya and Adityanath. In private conversations, a number of BJP leaders from the state have been critical of the chief minister’s working style and cited it as one of the reasons for their loss. However, Adityanath is seen by his supporters as a popular chief minister who has aggressively pursued the party’s Hindutva agenda and maintained a firm grip on law and order.
The INDIA alliance of the SP and the Congress had won 43 of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP-led NDA won 36. The NDA had won 64 seats in 2019.
Article Source: businesstoday.in
