How the whisper campaign against Yogi will further hurt BJP in UP?

New Delhi: Weeks after the Lok Sabha polls, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party wasn’t able to perform up to expectation, a whisper campaign against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has apparently been launched by a section of the party.

It is believed that the Yogi is now facing the heat for securing less than adequate seats for the saffron front in the crucial state. Sources stated that a section of the UP MLAs are being instigated against Yogi, on the basis of instructions coming from 'above'.

“Effort is being made to somehow pin the entire burden of the ‘defeat’ in the state on Yogi Adityanath,” sources stated.

The political move from “above” comes even as the BJP held its state working committee meeting for the first time after Lok Sabha results on Sunday.

Senior party leadership including its national president JP Nadda and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, state BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were also present at the state working committee meeting in Lucknow.

Sources within the party claimed that change in leadership in UP would not be as easy as was decreed in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana or other states earlier, where sitting CMs had to make way for Central leadership's choices.

The Yogi camp is also not seemingly backing down with counter questions being asked as to who distributed the tickets and selected candidates for Lok Sabha polls from UP.

"Why were tainted people brought into the party and given tickets within six months? And all this was done despite vehement opposition by the Chief Minister," sources said.

It was also pointed out that the faction fueling the present whispering campaign against Yogi had taken credit for a superb show by the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“If someone takes credit for securing 71 and 63 seats in the earlier Lok Sabha elections from UP, then the blame for coming down to 33 seats in 2024 should also go to them,” sources added.

Yogi still going strong

Whatever may be the internal politics of BJP and its outlook for UP’s future, the acceptance of Yogi as the CM in the state is undisputed. Those who are instigating party legislators should understand that without Yogi at the helm, is unlikely to make a comeback in UP in 2027.

UP Chief Minister is the second most sought-after leader for political and electoral campaigns by the saffron front across the country. And the demand for Yogi has been growing despite an unease between BJP's central leadership and the saffron-robed CM of India’s electorally most crucial state.

Considered a poster boy of Hindutva politics, Yogi has been known to take up an independent policy and stance over various issues. This has often brought him at loggerheads with the BJP’s central leadership over the past few years.

The murmurs of things not being smooth between him and a “few” central leaders keep surfacing every few months.

However, Yogi is understood to have a strong backing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP, which had earlier too put its foot down when similar murmur campaigns against the UP CM were initiated. 

Over the past few days, it has become evident that despite facing massive reversals in recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP doesn’t seem to have learnt its lessons.

The fight for dominance in politically the most crucial state for the BJP is likely to turn ugly if the issue isn’t addressed soon by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, and soon.