Former IAS officer and BJP MLC Arvind Kumar Sharma, considered to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was on Saturday appointed vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the party.
Sharma's inclusion in the party organisation comes barely nine months before the next assembly polls in the state. The polls are scheduled to be held in March next year.
There were speculations that Sharma, a Gujarat cadre ex-bureaucrat, could be inducted in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet as deputy chief minister.
The speculations gained ground after reports that the BJP central leadership was not 'satisfied' with chief minister Yogi Adityanath's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
UP, which was among the worst-affected states, had witnessed chaotic scenes at the peak of the pandemic, with videos of attendants of Covid patients wailing before hospitals after being refused admission and the burning of a large number of pyres at the crematoria.
Some media reports had claimed that Adityanath was reluctant to include Sharma in his ministry, given the latter's proximity to the PM.
Sharma was a secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) at the Centre and had taken voluntary retirement before joining the BJP.
Although sources in the BJP said the UP cabinet could soon be reshuffled, inducting some new faces and dropping some others, especially those who were found to be 'inactive' during the peak of the pandemic in the state, it was not clear if Sharma would find a place in the ministry.
Published 19 June 2021, 12:05 IST