Amid speculations of rift within the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Uttar Pradesh government, UP deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya met part president JP Nadda on Tuesday.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of the BJP working out a strategy to improve its performance in the key state, following the poor numbers it bagged in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, no official statement has been put out on the agenda of Nadda's meeting with Maurya. The UP deputy CM also did not make any comments to the reporters outside the BJP headquarters.
Citing party sources, news agency PTI reported that Nadda is also likely to meet BJP's state unit chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary.
Maurya's remark, "organisation is always bigger than government", during the state BJP's extended executive meeting on Sunday added significance the two leaders meeting.
Also present at the BJP UP Karya Samiti were Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and JP Nadda. Yogi had said that "over-confidence" was the reason behind the poor electoral performance of the party in the state, suggesting that their campaign did not effectively counter that of the INDIA bloc.
But Maurya's remark stuck with the opposition leaders as well. Congress Amethi MP KL Sharma told news agency ANI, "There is indeed a resentment within BJP... Every individual in UP can sense it. It is true that 'organisation' is always bigger than the 'government'. But the Head of the Government should listen to the people of the Organisation. This goes for every party."
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, noting that he has 44 years of experience in Uttar Pradesh, said that they will have to wait and see as to why such things are happening in the state. "The BJP workers are really sad inside," Tiwari said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also took a swipe at the BJP and said that it using the "sabotage politics", that it used to do in other parties, inside its own party now, adding that this is "why BJP is sinking in the quagmire of internal conflicts".
"In the heat of BJP's fight for power, governance and administration in UP has been put on the back burner. There's no one in BJP who thinks about the public," Akhilesh's post on X in Hindi read.
The buzz over not-so-warm relations between Yogi and Maurya has been doing the rounds for a long time now. Reportedly, many BJP leaders from the state, including those who lost in the general elections, have expressed criticism over the chief minister's working style, terming it to be one of the reasons behind their loss.
But Yogi, who has consistently pursued the party's Hindutva agenda and maintained his grip on the state's law and order, is seen as a popular chief minister by his supporters.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the SP and Congress together won 43 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, whereas the BJP-led NDA won only 36, a sharp dip from its 2019 number of 64 seats.
Political parties are now focused on bettering their performances for the by-elections, which is due in 10 assembly seats in the state.
