News Brief
UP Elections 2022: Yogi Adityanath Visits KP Maurya’s House; A K Sharma Says Polls Will Be Held Under Yogi’s Leadership
- The newly appointed party vice president in Uttar Pradesh A K Sharma has said that the 2022 assembly polls will be held in the leadership of Yogi Adityanath and Swatantra Dev Singh.
- On Tuesday (22 June) UP Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath visited the house of Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya for the first time in four years. Maurya's official residence is only a plot away from that of Yogi's.
- While the formality of wishing Maurya congratulations on his son’s marriage might be one explanation, political analysts are guessing that a lot more is going on in the BJP in regards to who would be the chief ministerial face for the upcoming election campaigns.
- The meeting between Yogi and Maurya lasted for 1.5 hours. Maurya had reportedly hosted a lunch today for the party core committee members. RSS leader Krishna Gopal and Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, and BJP national general secretary B K Santhosh were also present.
- In 2017 state assembly elections BJP hadn’t officially announced a chief ministerial face. But Maurya was being seen as the first in the race, as he was appointed the state party chief in 2016.
- However, after the results revealed a landslide victory for the party with more than 300 seats, Yogi Adityanath was appointed chief minister, and Maurya had to be content with the Deputy CM post.
- Maurya reportedly advocated an “Assam model” poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh this time for 2022 polls — where there is no projected CM face in the campaign. The decision as to who will get the post is taken post polls in the legislative party meet. Maurya is referring to the Assam assembly polls this year. While BJP managed to hold on to power in Assam, the incumbent Sarbananda Sonowal was replaced by Himanta Biswa Sarma as the chief minister.
- Further, B L Santhosh, Radha Mohan Singh (BJP vice president) are also reportedly on a two-day visit to the state.
- They are scheduled to participate in a meeting today evening with CM Yogi and other ministers at the BJP headquarters in Lucknow, along with Swatantra Dev Singh (BJP state president) and Sunil Bansal (BJP state general secretary).
- Meanwhile, the newly appointed party vice president in Uttar Pradesh A K Sharma has said that the 2022 assembly polls will be held in the leadership of Yogi Adityanath and Swatantra Dev Singh.
- In a letter sent to Singh on Sunday (20 June), Sharma said, “In the 2022 UP polls to be held under your and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s stewardship, the BJP would win even more seats than before.”
- Sharma further said, “In my view, people of UP love Modiji just as much as they did in 2013-14 and this great leader’s name and patronage is enough to win elections.”
- While the party denies any tug of war, political analysts sense a competition between Maurya and Yogi. Even party voters who were skeptical of him as a choice for the chief minister after the 2017 elections, praised his style of leadership in dealing with state’s problem with corruption, gundaraj, and crises like violent anti-CAA protests. Despite Opposition’s accusations of favouring Thakurs, Yogi has a dedicated following now in the state.
- Maurya, on the other hand, has been instrumental for garnering the non-Yadav OBC votes for the party — instrumental for BJP’s 60-40 strategy. He is expected to bring the support of Koeri community, the fourth largest politically organised community in the state after Yadavs, Jats and Kurmis.
- Also read: UP Assembly Elections 2022: Where The Major And Minor Parties Stand As Of Today
Uttar Pradesh Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya
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