JOIN USUP CM Yogi Adityanath to meet PM Narendra Modi on June 11
Amid the ongoing buzz of a power tussle in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath huddled in a one and half hour-long meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief J P Nadda on Friday.
The two-day visit of the UP Chief Minister to Delhi to meet the BJP top brass comes after back to back stock-taking meetings on political scenario in Uttar Pradesh by the senior functionaries from RSS and BJP in the wake of criticism around the handling of Corona pandemic by Yogi government in the state, which goes to poll in nine months.
The Chief Minister's meetings with the central party leaders have begun a day after BJP-inducted erstwhile Congress leader and former Union Minister Jitin Prasada, a Brahmin face, whom the party would like to put to good use in countering the rumblings among the community, which for last many years has backed the BJP solidly in the state.
A Cabinet reshuffle is imminent in UP in which the role of Gujarat IAS officer turned UP MLC Arvind Sharma, a close confidante of Modi, is to be finalised. UP has been agog with the buzz that the Chief Minister had put his foot down against appointing Sharma as Deputy Chief Minister replacing one of the two incumbents.
Yogi's revised Cabinet could give a signal of the community outreach of the BJP.
The state is central to BJP's Lok Sabha fortunes. Apart from having 80 Lok Sabha seats, the state also has PM Modi's Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, and three holy Hindu sites —Ayodhya, Mathura and Kanshi.
The party has made it clear to Yogi dissenters that there would be no change in leadership amid a growing realisation that to ensure victory, both Modi and Yogi will need to be harnessed together and any division could be counter productive.
The first high level deliberations on UP's apparent mismanagement of Covid-19 crisis in the state casting its shadow on BJP's electoral show, took place on May 24 in Delhi when Modi had a brainstorming with senior BJP and RSS leaders----Shah, Nadda, BJP general secretary for Uttar Pradesh Sunil Bansal and RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.
Later, Hosabale made a three-day visit to UP, while BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh held an interaction with MLAs in Lucknow and reviewed how the Covid situation could lead to a possible political fallout for the BJP.
From June 3 to June 5, top RSS leaders brainstormed in the national capital with the Sangh head Mohan Bhagwat on "emerging socio-political scenario" with special emphasis on UP. On June 5 and 6, BJP chief J P Nadda held deliberations with party general secretaries, including those in charge of the poll-bound states - UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab.
With no end to rumours of a rift between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, BJP National Vice President and in-charge for UP Radha Mohan Singh on June 6 came out on record to dismiss the hearsay and made it clear that the BJP will stick to the leadership of Yogi in 2022 Assembly polls .