There are signs of disenchantment within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh as it looks to dust off the 2024 Lok Sabha poll reversal and strike back in the 2027 assembly elections.
BJP MLC Devendra Pratap Singh has claimed that the workers of the party are being neglected. Speaking to ABP News, Singh also said there is “loot within the bureaucracy”.
Primary teachers, he added, “have been treated unfairly, and there is corruption in the state”. “If things in the state do not improve, then the situation can worsen,” he said.
Singh, the MLC for the Gorakhpur Faizabad area, said bureaucrats in the state had bought outdated smartphones at double the price, and tablets were being sold at high prices, in a probable reference to UP govt schemes that distribute these gadgets among students. This, he added, should be investigated.
Singh has also written a letter to CM Yogi Adityanath, lauding his and PM Modi’s governance but alleging a “conspiracy by bureaucrats” to undermine the government. The letter primarily questioned the digital attendance system for teachers, which has stoked protests in the state.
His remarks came on the heels of the state BJP unit’s working committee meeting on Sunday, its first important congregation after the Lok Sabha election. The speakers at the meeting included Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.
At the meeting, Adityanath said “overconfidence” had hurt the party in the election, while Maurya described the lowered tally as a temporary setback that the party would overcome by 2027, when the state holds its next assembly election.
The BJP won 33 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, down from 62 in 2019, amid heavy gains made by the I.N.D.I.A bloc. While the Congress won six seats, up from one in 2019, the Samajwadi Party (SP) bagged 37.
‘Your Pain Is My Pain’
Referring to the party’s 2024 performance, Maurya told party workers at the meeting that “your pain is my pain too”. The “organisation (BJP)”, he noted, “is greater than the government, and all ministers, MLAs, and public representatives should respect workers and take care of their dignity”.
“The organisation was bigger than the government, is bigger, and will always be bigger,” he said. “The SP and the Congress, in the form of 'saapnath' and 'naagnath', have pushed us behind for some time by lying and cheating. But, in 2027, we will again form the BJP government in the state with a target of crossing 300 seats (out of 403).”
Maurya said the door of his residence at 7, Kalidas Marg, Lucknow, “is open to all”. “I am the deputy chief minister later, and a worker of the party first,” he added.
He said the time had come to give a tough answer to the Opposition bloc, “which has become a machine of lies”. “Even if the SP, BSP, and Congress unite in 2027, the BJP has to reach its target of over 300 seats by the dint of its strength,” he added.
‘Overconfidence’ Hurt Hopes Of BJP: Yogi
In his address at the working committee meeting, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said “overconfidence” had hurt the hopes of the saffron party in the Lok Sabha polls.
While the BJP managed to maintain its vote share, there was a “shifting of votes”, and now the “defeated Opposition is jumping around” again.
“Under the leadership of PM Modi, we had maintained constant pressure on the Opposition in UP, achieving great success in 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022 (national and state elections),” CM Adityanath said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
“The percentage of votes that BJP had in its favour in 2014 and subsequent elections, BJP has been successful in getting the same number of votes in 2024 as well, but shifting of votes and overconfidence have hurt our hopes,” he added.
Speaking at the concluding session of the day-long meeting at Ambedkar Auditorium of Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University in Lucknow, Adityanath said, “The Opposition, which had earlier accepted defeat, is again jumping around today.”