Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is now eyeing a seat in the BJP’s highest decision-making body, the parliamentary board, as he seeks to reinforce his position as a top national-level party leader, sources said.
Yogi, who returned to power in the country’s most populous state for a second consecutive term, has also been working carefully to push his image as a “hardcore administrator” in addition to his “hardcore Hindutva” identity, party leaders said.
The BJP’s parliamentary board, which is headed by party chief J.P. Nadda and has Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah as members, has the final say on all key matters.
The 11-member elite club has five vacancies following the demise of Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar; elevation of Venkaiah Naidu as Vice-President of India and Thawar Chand Gehlot as governor. There is a strong buzz in the party that the vacancies will be filled soon.
“Yogi is certainly a strong claimant for a seat in the parliamentary board and his lobbyists too have been pushing for it,” a BJP leader said. “The top leadership, however, will take a call on whether he deserves it just now or later,” the leader added.
Fourth-term Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is at present the only chief minister on the parliamentary board. He was inducted in August 2014 by then BJP president Amit Shah.
Modi was the first chief minister to get a place in the parliamentary board in 2013, signalling that he was scheduled to play a big role at the national level.
In fact, the push for Shivraj and Modi had come simultaneously but Shivraj’s name was cleared only after the Gujarat chief minister had become the Prime Minister. Party insiders revealed that then stalwart L.K. Advani had argued that Shivraj, then a third-term CM like Modi, was equally deserving.
Many BJP leaders feel that the parliamentary board comprises “senior leaders” and there is no hurry for Yogi, who will be 50 in June.
Yogi lobbyists, however, rubbish this logic, pointing how Nitin Gadkari had become the BJP president at 52. “If Nitin Gadkari can become BJP president at 52, can’t Yogiji be a member of the parliamentary board at 50?” a party manager said.
In the BJP and the wider Sangh parivar, Yogi is seen as a rising Hindutva star. Last month, he became the first chief minister in Uttar Pradesh in over 30 years to return to power. His promoters feel that he has already emerged as a national-level leader and deserves a place in the BJP’s highest decision-making body.
Party veterans, however, feel that the rush on the part of Yogi could be counter-productive. One party leader pointed out how Yogi was firm on contesting the UP polls from Ayodhya in a bid to embody the political symbol of the constituency in the backdrop of the upcoming Ram temple but it was struck down by the central leadership.
“Yogiji wanted to contest the polls from Ayodhya but the central leadership prevailed and he had to settle for home turf Gorakhpur,” the BJP leader said, seeking to caution the lobby pushing for his inclusion in the parliamentary board.While the managers of Yogi are engaged in a relatively under the radar push for his inclusion in the top party body, the chief minister himself has been seen operating very cautiously in his second stint.
Some party leaders said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister had been focused on enhancing his image of not just a “hardcore Hindutva” leader but also a “hardcore administrator” while stressing the supremacy of Modi as the “guide and the mentor”.
In most tweets by Yogi, the words that come up regularly are: “aadarniya pradhamantri ji ke margdarshan me” (under the guidance of the honourable Prime Minister) or “aadarniya pradhamantri ji ke netritva me” (under the leadership of the honourable Prime Minister).
“In the second stint, the focus is on uprooting corruption from government offices. Officers are being encouraged to carry out sting operations in offices that deal directly with the people,” a party leader in Lucknow said. “For a clean image, ministers have also been directed not to appoint their relatives and stay in government guest houses and not hotels during official trips,” the leader added.
Party leaders said just like Modi had built the “Gujarat model” as the chief minister, Yogi too appeared keen to have his “UP model” and had been using all this to strengthen his claim for recognition as a top party leader.
