Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the capital on Wednesday, sources said.
The meeting came as the party reviewed its performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh. The leaders pointed out several factors that caused the party to perform far below expectations in the crucial Hindi state.
Chaudhary is said to have briefed the prime minister on the party’s organisational matters. According to the sources, the meeting lasted for about an hour.
While the BJP wants to tackle several factors to put up a strong show in the 2027 assembly polls, the immediate challenge for the party is 10 by-elections in the state for which the Election Commission has not yet announced a date. There is speculation that the Samajawadi Party (SP) and the Congress will also have an alliance for these by-elections.
Samajwadi Party won 37 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections and BJP won 33 seats. Congress won six seats in the state in alliance with Samajwadi Party.
Chaudhary and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya met BJP president JP Nadda separately on Tuesday. Chaudhary is said to have briefed him about the reasons for the party’s poor performance.
Sources said the BJP central leadership is collecting feedback from various leaders about the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Opposition leaders have spoken of dissonance within the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh after the Lok Sabha election results.
They responded to a message from Keshav Prasad Maurya’s office saying, “the organization is bigger than the government.”
Maurya, however, reacted sharply to party leader Akhilesh Yadav’s dig at the party and said the BJP is strong at the state and national level and will win the 2027 state assembly elections.
“Sapa Bahadur Shri Akhilesh Yadav ji, BJP has a strong organisation and government both at national and state level, SP’s PDA is a fraud. Return of SP’s hooliganism in UP is impossible, BJP will repeat 2017 in 2027 elections,” Maurya said in a post on X on Wednesday.
Earlier, the post from Maurya’s office had created a stir in political circles. Maurya, who is seen as a leader who has risen from the ranks, spoke of the pain of party workers.
“The organization is bigger than the government, the pain of the employees is my pain. No one is bigger than the organization, the employees are the pride,” Office of Keshav Prasad Maurya said in a post on X.
Maurya is in his second term as the Deputy CM of the state. In 2017, he was the leader of the BJP in the state when the party secured a spectacular victory in the elections, winning 312 seats. After the victory, Yogi Adityanth was elected as the Chief Minister.
In 2022, Maurya lost the state assembly elections but continued as Deputy CM. He was later elected to the Legislative Council.
BJP leader and minister BL Verma downplayed Maurya’s earlier remarks and said the organisation and the government complement each other.
“I am also a party worker. We all respect party workers. Organizational work is done by organizations and the government does the government work… Organizations and governments work together for the development of the state (UP). Both the organization and the government have their place. The organization and the government complement each other,” he said.
On the meetings between Maurya and Chowdhary with JP Nadda, Verma said that these formal and informal discussions and meetings are still taking place.
“We are moving forward. Contemplation and brainstorming are essential, regardless of the outcome. Our goal for 2027 is to emerge victorious,” he said.
In his remarks, Akhilesh Yadav alleged that there is a “power struggle” within the BJP and that the party does not think of the people.
“In the heat of BJP’s power struggle, governance and administration in UP have been put on the back burner. The work of sabotage politics that BJP used to do in other parties is now being done within its party. That is why BJP is sinking into a quagmire of internal conflict. No one in BJP is thinking of the public,” Yadav posted on X.
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said the same thing had happened when Kalyan Singh was UP chief minister and only time will tell whether a new Kalyan Singh is in the making or not.
“I have 44 years of experience in UP… The same thing is happening now when Kalyan Singh was ousted by the BJP and only time will tell whether there is another Kalyan Singh or Kalyan Singh can prevail. We will have to wait and see why all this is happening. But one thing is for sure that the honest BJP workers are really sad inside,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that there is a power struggle within the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.
“UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya is in Delhi. He is constantly meeting Nadda. He is the one who led the revolt against Yogi (Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath) in the state. On whose orders he is doing this, you all know. For your information, I can tell you that this gentleman lost the state assembly elections,” she said in a message on X.
A meeting of the BJP state leadership was held in Lucknow on Sunday, which reportedly reviewed the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections. BJP leader Nadda addressed the meeting.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: Jul 18, 2024 | 03:38 AM IST