Indications from several BJP leaders suggested an impending organisational reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh particularly after a clandestine meeting recently held at UP Bhavan in Delhi has thrown the party into disarray.
During the meeting, some BJP leaders and MLAs squarely blamed the state organisation for the sharp decline in the Lok Sabha seats — from 62 in 2019 to 33 now. They went so far as to verbally resolve to suspend Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, the party’s UP president.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was united in its belief that they would secure victory with Narendra Modi at the helm. But after the seat loss, no one dared to attribute the party’s embarrassing failure in UP to Modi. Nevertheless, leaders in the saffron heartland are now openly expressing their frustration.
A senior BJP leader in Lucknow told The Telegraph on Saturday: “We heard about this meeting but didn’t take it seriously because all those who were present in UP Bhavan were admirers of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Since there was a rumour in the political circle that the CM was responsible for the loss, his supporters shifted it (the blame) on Chaudhary.
“The fact remains that we fought the election in Modi’s name and I don’t need to say who actually should be blamed for the loss of 29 seats when there were leaders who were boasting that we would win all 80 seats in UP. But it is true that the bickering in the party surfaced after the results were declared,” he added.
About 830km east of New Delhi, the supporters of Jagdambika Pal, who has been elected from Domariyaganj (Siddharthnagar) seat by a lesser margin (42,700) than in 2019 (1,05,000) slammed the supporters of Satish Dwivedi, another party leader during a review meeting in Itwa on Friday.
They blamed Dwivedi for opposing the candidature of Pal and secretly campaigning for SP nominee Bhishma Shankar Tiwari. A purported video of the incident has gone viral on social media. Pal was elected Congress MP from the seat in 2009 but defected to the BJP in 2014. Since then, he has won it four times.
