The team from Delhi is also tasked to assess the reasons of the saffron party’s poor performance in recently held Panchayat elections.
As the saffron party’s concerns grow over criticism heaped on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s handling of the Covid crisis, a series of meetings in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP faces a critical election next year, took place in the presence of senior leaders.
BJP’s national general secretary of organization BL Santhosh and former Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh were the two leaders who started meeting UP ministers in Lucknow yesterday in a two-day “review” exercise.
The two leaders also met with Yogi Adityanath and will speak with his two deputies, reports said. However, sources rubbished speculation that the three (Adityanath and his deputies) will be replaced ahead of the polls.
The leaders were reviewing the work done by the party for Covid relief across the state in the last few months and earlier, a BJP press release said.
Yogi Adityanath government’s response to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has drawn a flak from all ends. Opposition parties have been targetting the Yogi government while stressing that the state government’s perceived mishandling caused a large number of deaths in the second wave.
In addition, visuals of dead bodies floating in the Ganges river and buried on the banks of the river have caused huge uproar and garnered international attention. However, the UP government has refuted the reports. The Yogi Adityanath government accused media of misreporting the situation, and claimed that the Chief Minister has constantly been on the ground touring the entire state.
The senior leaders also met state Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh. Sources say both Mr. Santosh and Mr. Singh discussed ways to further publicise the government and the party’s Covid response among the masses.
However, there have been several reports of the BJP’s own MPs and MLAs criticising the state government over the Covid situation.
Almost two weeks back, hitting out at his own party, BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district, said lawmakers like him do not have any stature and too many statements to the media may lead to a ‘sedition’ case against him.
When asked about efforts to operationalise a government trauma centre in the Sitapur town, whose building has been ready for a few years now, MLA Rakesh Rathore said: “I have taken many steps, but ‘vidhayakon ki haisiyat kya hai (what stature do MLAs have?)’. If I speak too much, then sedition charges may be invoked against me.”
Sources suggest that the team from Delhi is also tasked to assess the reasons of the saffron party’s poor performance in recently held Panchayat elections. The BJP suffered major blows in its strongholds such as Ayodhya and Mathura. In CM Adityanath’s home turf Gorakhpur, the party went neck-and-neck with the Samajwadi Party.
Of 68 seats in Gorakhpur, the BJP and Samajwadi Party both won 20 seats each, the Independents won 23. AAP, Congress and the Nishad Party won one seat each and the BSP two seats.
In the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the saffron party managed to win only 8 out of 40 seats of the district panchayat. Samajwadi Party has won 14 seats, BSP got 5 seats, whereas Apna Dal (S) scored three seats. Aam Aadmi Party also opened its account in Varanasi district.
BJP has also faced an embarrassing defeat in Mathura, the city of Lord Krishna. In Mathura, Mayawati’s BSP has won 12 seats and Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal has won 9 seats. BJP won 8 seats. At the same time, the SP opened its account with just one seat. Congress failed to score any seat, while 3 independents won.
The BJP’s condition remained poor in Ayodhya as well. The Samajwadi Party swept 24 out of 40 seats in the district. BJP managed to win only 6 seats. The rest were captured by independents.
All three districts of Ayodhya-Mathura-Kashi have always been at the centre of the BJP’s political agenda.
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