A dissection of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s disappointing performance in Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections by the party’s own state unit has sought to blame administrative high-handedness and repeated paper leaks as among the reasons possibly behind the debacle. On target in this exhaustive 15-page report submitted to the party’s central leadership is none other than Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath whom a faction of the BJP’s state unit has accused of preferring officials over the party rank and file.
The past few days have seen daggers being drawn in the party unit that once took pride over its invincibility and dominance following its victories in successive elections held so far. Matters came to a pass at a meeting of the Uttar Pradesh BJP Executive Committee in Lucknow on Sunday when CM Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya spoke in two voices over the likely reasons for the party’s Lok Sabha fiasco.
The Chief Minister, on his part, has maintained that one has to pay the price for overconfidence of a certain victory, a remark seen as a reference to the fatigue and lack of enthusiasm in the BJP cadre in the state during the Lok Sabha elections. “Jab hum yeh maan ke chalte hain ati aatmavishwas mein ki hum to jeet hi rahe hain to swabhavik roop se humein iska khamiyaza bhi bharna padta hai (when we, in our overconfidence, take victory for certain, we always end up paying the price for it),” CM Adityanath said at the meet which also had party president and Union minister JP Nadda in attendance.
Addressing the gathering at the same event, Maurya sang a different tune and instead preached how no one can consider himself to be above the party organisation. “Humare liye sangathan sadaiv sarkar se bada raha hai. Sabhi mantriyon, vidhayakon aur jan pratinidhiyon ko karyakartaon ka samman karna chahiye. Main pehle karyakarta hoon uske baad up mukhya mantri (For us, organisation has always been superior. All ministers, MLAs and public representatives should respect party workers. Iam a party worker first and Deputy Chief Minister later),” Maurya said.
The remarks only made public the discord within the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit, certifying what was already an open secret. Maurya and Adityanath have rarely seen eye to eye after the former was forced to play second fiddle despite his influence as a leader from the prominent OBC community and the backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Maurya, once a claimant to the chief minister’s post, has suggested that the administrative high-handedness under the incumbent CM’s rule has alienated the ordinary party worker and the voters at large.
In its report to the central leadership, the BJP has also highlighted a fall of 8 per cent in the BJP’s vote share across all regions of Uttar Pradesh, reports NDTV. It has also called upon the central leadership of the party to intervene and prevent future electoral contests in the state from becoming a match between the backward and forward castes.
Overall, the report cites six key reasons behind the BJP’s loss in the state. Besides alleged high-handedness by administrative officials, these include discontent among party workers, 15 paper leaks in the past three years, and the employment of contractual workers in government jobs that helped the Opposition enhance their narrative around the BJP’s position on reservations, among other reasons.
The scathing report was discussed during meetings between the BJP’s central and state leadership over the past few days. Amid growing buzz around an organisational overhaul to quell the infighting, BJP president Nadda met Maurya and state president Bhupendra Chaudhary in New Delhi earlier this week. The leaders have also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met the BJP’s UP chief where the party unit’s feedback was discussed at length.
The immediate concern for the BJP now is to put up a united front for the Assembly by-elections in 10 seats which is due to be announced by the Election Commission of India. The BJP is banking on winning these seats to turn the narrative in its favour once again ahead of the Assembly elections in 2027. The immediate challenge before the party is to address the drift in non-Yadav OBC and Dalit voters to the Samajwadi Party and Congress.
So far, the BJP has asked state leaders to address their differences internally and focus on winning the upcoming byelections to the 10 vacant seats. The rumours around a possible change in Chief Minister have been put to rest for now while the ogranisational revamp could see Maurya, or another OBC leader, replace Bhupendra Chaudhary as the state unit president.