UP BJP chief meets Modi as dissent against Yogi mounts

Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, sources said, and is believed to have briefed him on a host of issues related to the party's organisational matters in the politically crucial state.

Chaudhary and the state's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had met Bharatiya Janata Party national president J P Nadda separately on Tuesday amid signs of dissonant voices emerging from within the party in the state where it suffered shock losses in the Lok Sabha polls at the hands of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance.

Maurya's differences with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are widely acknowledged even within the party, and his comment at a state party meeting that the "organisation is always bigger than government and no one can be bigger than the organisation" was seen by many political watchers as a message to the monk-politician.

He had made the remarks in presence of Adityanath and Nadda, while the chief minister blamed "over-confidence" for the electoral reverses in the state and suggested that the party could not effectively counter the opposition INDIA bloc's campaign.

With the party's top brass speaking to Maurya and Chaudhary, considered a sober and objective voice, they seem to be taking steps to put their house in order against a resurgent opposition in the state, which has been critical to the BJP's rise as the dominant national force since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The deputy chief minister further stirred the pot on Wednesday by posting his "organisation is bigger than government..." comments from his office's handle. In private conversations, a number of BJP leaders from the state, including those who lost in the Lok Sabha polls, have been critical of the chief minister's working style and cited it as one of the reasons for their loss.

However, Adityanath is seen by his supporters as a popular chief minister who has aggressively pursued the party's Hindutva agenda and maintained a firm grip on law and order.

A senior party leader acknowledged that comments from several leaders in the state have dented its image of a disciplined party but added that it was also expected as they needed to vent out their feelings after suffering a defeat which few saw coming.

BJP sources said their top priority right now is to do well in the assembly bypolls to 10 seats in the state. The Election Commission is likely to announce the date for the polls soon.

The BJP-led NDA and the Samajwadi Party held five seats each. In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the INDIA alliance of the SP and the Congress had won 43 of the state's 80 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP-led NDA won 36. The NDA had won 64 seats in 2019.