A day after winning the Uttar Pradesh civic polls, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and apprised him of an internal assessment on the electoral effort that showed that people continued to repose their faith in the BJP, eight months after the Assembly elections.
Modi is learnt to have told the chief minister to focus on the development of the state as the next round of a bigger electoral test is only a year away when the prime minister will be seeking a fresh mandate to remain in power.
The chief minister also took to Twitter to say that the verdict validates the development schemes of the Centre and state governments for empowering the people of Uttar Pradesh.
But, Yogi will have to deliver administratively not only to silence his detractors who have created a buzz on his lack of office experience, but also fulfil the central leadership's expectation that the party's performance in the next general elections should not slip much from its peak performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP had won 71 of the total 80 parliamentary seats.
Yogi has launched a crackdown on non-performers and given a free hand to police for restoring law and order.
"With this feat, the saffron-robed head priest of Gorakhnath math has now consolidated his position in the BJP, given that he had steered the campaign leading to the party's emphatic win in civic polls," said a party leader in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP won 14 of the 16 mayoral seats.
Interestingly, the party has not fared that well in the nagar panchayat elections, as it has managed to win only 664 of the total 5446 wards, which comes to only 12.22%.
It indicates that rural inhabitants are not satisfied with the ruling BJP's performance. While more than 71% wards were cornered by independent candidates, the SP managed to win 453 wards, the BSP 262 and the Congress stood last with 126.
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