New Delhi:
A key meeting between the Uttar Pradesh government and the BJP’s ideologcal mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will be held this evening at the house of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Sources said today’s meeting will be attended by RSS leader Arun Kumar, Dharampal Singh, state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, the Chief Minister and both his deputies.
The meeting, said to be meant for better coordination ahead of the Rajya Sabha by-polls, comes amid speculation about a rift within the party.
There has been criticism about Yogi Adityanath’s government after the BJP’s below par performance in the recent general election. The state’s ruling party had won 33 seats on its own — 29 short of the 62 seats it won in 2019. Off the record, many said it was a comment on the governance.
Keshav Maurya, a leader of the Other Backward classes and frontrunner for the Chief Minister post in 2017, had reiterated that the party’s organisation is bigger than the government. The comment was seen as disparaging to the Chief Minister.
But days later, amid jibes from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, he had heaped praise on Yogi Adityanath, calling him the best Chief Minister in the country. Addressing party workers in Mirzapur on Sunday, he also said the party’s “double-engine” is doing the best work in the country.
“The BJP is in power in the country as well as in the state. People know and believe that our double-engine government is doing the best work in the country. Is there any other leader like PM (Narendra) Modi in the world, and is there any other CM like Yogi Adityanath in the country?” he had said.
Today’s meeting, sources indicated, will be crucial in view of the Rajya Sabha by-poll.
The BJP has been on an overdrive in the state since the Lok Sabha election setback.
