Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath calls on PM Narendra Modi

Indicating that some drastic changes will be made to give the party more teeth ahead of polls in Uttar Pradesh and six other states next year, the BJP top brass on Friday got into a huddle to decide the strategy soon after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's two-day visit to Delhi concluded.

During his visit, Adityanath met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nada on Friday after a one and half hour long interaction with Home Minister Amit Shah amid a strong buzz of a rift with Centre.

Shah and Nadda huddled with PM Modi amid a strong buzz for a reshuffle of the Union Cabinet and impending Cabinet reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh. Both the rejigs will be made keeping in mind the upcoming state polls in seven states including UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in 2022. Modi will also meet Union Ministers in batches in next few days.

Read more: PM Modi meets Shah, Nadda amid Cabinet reshuffle buzz

Yogi's meeting with Modi lasted for nearly an hour and with Nadda nearly one and half hour. However, there was no media interaction or press conference after these high profile meetings. Leaders tweeted about it with photographs. After the meetings, Yogi tweeted in Hindi saying "Heartfelt gratitude to the respected Prime Minister for providing time to meet and for loving guidance (aatmiya margdarshan) amid his busiest schedule," Yogi said.

While Modi and Shah simply mentioned that they met the UP CM, Nadda hailed him as "successful (Yashaswhi) Chief Minister of UP." Yogi thanked Nadda for giving time to him from his busy schedule and "guidance on various issues".

Insiders say while the party has made it clear to Yogi's dissenters that the incumbent Chief Minister will remain its face for next Assembly polls, Shah, who was in charge of party affairs of UP before 2014 Lok Sabha polls had changed BJP's fortunes, is back in action for the political strategy of the state, which has 80 Lok Sabha seats including Modi's Parliamentary seat Varanasi and the three temples Ayodhya, Mathura and Kanshi, the key to Hindutva politics of the saffron party. Recently, the party performed very badly in Panchayat elections even in these regions.

Shah on Thursday met Apna Dal (S) chief Anupuriya S Patel, who was Union Minister in Modi's first government and leaders of Nishad party in UP. While Patel hails from the Kurmi caste, the second most dominant OBC after Yadavs in UP, the Nishad Party leader Sanjay Nishad is influential among the boatmen (mallah) community, which can influence outcomes in nearly 100 assembly seats on the banks of river Ganga.

Images of bodies floating in the holy river during the pandemic have dented the good governance image of BJP in the state.

The non-Yadav backward castes have been the bedrock of BJP's support base in UP in the last seven years. These meetings are significant amid the impression that the caste calculus the Modi-Shah built assiduously in UP is now under strain.

While the BJP has publicly dismissed talk of any rift, the Opposition Congress went to the town claiming that "all is not well in UP BJP." Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, who hails from Uttar Pradesh asked "what is the reason for the tug of war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath or between Yogi and Shah...Yogi Adityanath first refused to meet Arvind Sharma (former Gujarat cadre IAS officer turned MLC in UP), the messenger of Modi Ji for four days, then put his foot down against making him state's home minister Then Modi's picture went missing for one and half months from government advertisements in UP."

There was also big speculation around Modi and Shah not giving their birthday wishes to Yogi Adityanath on Twitter last week, which was slammed by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya as "desperation to spin stories around non-issues".

BJP has changed two of its CMs---Trivendra Singh Rawat in Uttarkhand in March this year one year before the polls and Sarbananda Sonowal in Assam after the Assembly polls to make way for the ambitious and assertive Himanta Biswa Sarma.

If there is a reshuffle in Union Cabinet as well, BJP may take a call on inducting the two former CMs as well as Jyotiraditya Scindia, who after switching sides delivered Madhya Pradesh back to BJP in 15 months after it lost the state in 2018 polls.

But Yogi is no pushover. Moreover, BJP feels a combo of Brand Modi and Brand Yogi is a better option for it in UP. Hence, BJP is trying to address issues like the anger of Brahmins by inducting Congress' Brahmin face Jitin Prasada and addressing governance deficit issues by roping in the services of former IAS officer Arvind Sharma. Sharma, who is seen as a trusted hand of Modi, is also in Delhi to meet party leaders and allies.

The BJP and RSS have held a series of high-level feedback exercises in UP as well as Delhi over poll and pandemic in the last fortnight. During his meeting with Shah, Adityanath also presented a copy of the report 'Solution of Migrant Crisis'.