Amit Shah chairs UP BJP leaders meet amid 'murmurs of discontent'

Amid reports of 'murmurs of discontent' within the UP unit of the party over 'functioning' of the Yogi Adityanath government, BJP national president Amit Shah on Saturday chaired a meeting of senior state leaders and ministers here.

Shah, who arrived in the state capital on a three-day visit on Saturday, would seek to address the issues raised by the party leaders and the ministers, according to the sources in the BJP here.

Sources said that Shah, who was accorded a warm welcome upon his arrival here, would also discuss the preparations for the next Lok Sabha polls due in 2019.

The BJP national president's visit assumes significance as it comes at a time, when resentment prevailed in the party over what some leaders termed ''bureaucratic stranglehold'' over the state government and ''sidelining'' of the party workers.

Some BJP MLAs have even publicly aired their anguish. ''Our condition is worse than the opposition MLAs...the bureaucrats do not listen to us,'' BJP legislator Ashok Singh Chandel had said in the state assembly recently while making a speech.

Another senior BJP leader and Lok Sabha member Hukum Singh had also slammed the state government for not being able to ensure payment of cane arrears of the farmers in UP.

A senior BJP minister Jai Pratap Singh had shot off a letter to the energy minister Shrikant Sharma expressing serious concern over the prevailing acute shortage of power in the state. He had even said that party MLAs would find it difficult to face the people in 2019 if the situation did not improve.

Sources also said that UP BJP leaders had aired their grievances before prime minister Narendra Modi during a meeting with him in Delhi recently. The leaders were assured that their concerns would be addressed.

''Shah may try to resolve the issues and pacify the party leaders while asking the ministers to take note of their concerns,'' said a senior UP BJP leader here.