Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Bhupendra Chaudhary on Friday refuted speculations about the change of the chief minister, in the first such clarification from the party amid a seeming crisis triggered by Yogi Adityanath’s detractors airing dissenting voices.
Responding to media persons asking whether UP will see a change in CM, Chaudhary said: “There is nothing of this sort.”
Chaudhary, who held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi last week around the same time when UP Deputy CM Keshav Maurya met BJP national president J.P. Nadda, said while the Lok Sabha results in UP have not been according to expectations, the party leaders have held discussions among themselves and are reviewing everything.
“BJP is a democratic party, and everyone is entitled to put forth a point of view. UP is a huge state, and we are moving ahead with discipline. Today, the situation is that some things are circulating in the media; this happens in public life…. We will remove the shortcomings and march ahead,” Chaudhary said.
When asked about back-to-back meetings of the BJP national leadership and the state leadership in UP and Delhi, Chaudhary said the party is considering all issues.
On the speculations of a change in UP, he said, “There is nothing of this sort…. results may have come out, but our vote percentage is still highest in UP.”
While the BJP has won only 33 seats in UP this time, down from the 62 seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, its vote share has dropped from 49.6 percent to 41.4 percent.
“As a democratic political party, we are talking among ourselves and will go in the assembly polls with full preparation, and I am sure that the trust of the public of UP is with us,” he further said.
Uttar Pradesh will soon go to bypolls for 10 assembly seats, most of which fell vacant after their MLAs became MPs after the Lok Sabha elections.
Asked about the reasons for the BJP’s debacle in UP, Chaudhary blamed it on the “negative agenda created by the opposition” parties.
“You would have seen that Opposition created a negative agenda and misled the public, and this is a result of the same….but, the people of the state slowly are understanding all these subjects (the Opposition has brought up), and all of us have full faith in Modi ji,” he said.
Regarding the loss in the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which includes Ayodhya, and the reduced number of votes in Varanasi, Chaudhary said it was due to the same “negative agenda.”
“BJP is moving forward, taking its tradition, faith and legacy…it is a matter of pride for us that a grand temple has been built finally in Ayodhya after a struggle of 500 years,” he said.
CM Yogi Adityanath is holding back-to-back meetings with MLAs, MLCs, MPs and ministers in what appears to be an attempt to lead from the front and assert his command.
In the 14 July BJP working committee meeting, Maurya told workers that the party organisation is bigger than the government, sparking speculations of a rift between him and Adityanath.
Maurya and the other deputy CM, Brajesh Pathak, have repeatedly skipped meetings presided over by the CM, including the one held for bypoll preparation and other meetings with the public representatives from Prayagraj and Lucknow divisions, respectively.
Amid some UP BJP leaders, such as Badlapur MLA Ramesh Mishra, calling for a big change in the state and other BJP leaders hitting out at the bureaucracy, the CM has been projecting business as usual and sending a message that he has the support of MLAs.
All eyes are on whether Adityanath will meet Modi on the sidelines of the NITI Aayog meeting of all chief ministers in Delhi on Saturday.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has been hitting out at the BJP over its internal rift, recently writing a post on ‘X’, offering to form an SP government with the help of 100 BJP MLAs in a jibe at Maurya.
On Friday, Yadav again targeted Maurya, calling him a ‘mohra’ (pawn) of Delhi, as well as the ‘password of Delhi’s Wi-Fi’ in UP.
Then, Maurya posted a sharp retort on ‘X’, saying Yadav has become a pawn of the Congress.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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