While UP CM Yogi and his deputies, Maurya and Pathak, spar, the reality is that no one wants to shoulder the blame for the humiliating defeat in the recent LS polls, which hindered PM Modi from achieving a majority without relying on mercurial and costly allies. A report by Mudit Mathur
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. This saying explains the ongoing political cold war between the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his two deputies, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, and the state party chief, Bhupendra Chaudhary. No one wants to shoulder the blame for the humiliating defeat in the recent parliamentary elections, which hindered Prime Minister Narendra Modi from achieving a majority without relying on costly, over-ambitious allies.
Despite winning in Varanasi by a very thin margin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reportedly unhappy and emotionally hurt, and seeks to assign responsibility for the fiasco. This prompted a series of review meetings at both the organizational and chief ministerial levels. Modi separately met his trusted lieutenant, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, and BJP state president Bhupendra Chaudhary to get their first-hand accounts. Both have shifted the blame to CM Yogi Adityanath, alleging that his inflexible and stubborn approach, rooted in bureaucratic dominance, alienated the party workers. Bulldozer justice also caused panic among the masses, particularly the poor and marginalized sections, who moved to the Samajwadi fold, they lamented.
The political cold war in Uttar Pradesh is being seen as a reflection of national politics where the emergence of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on a bigger canvas could potentially challenge the mighty Union Home Minister Amit Shah who has always positioned next in the succession hierarchy to Prime Minister Modi. Though Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is an official number two in the government, nobody expects a bullying style of lobbying from him to be seen as a challenger to Modi or Shah. In such a situation, both of the deputies of Yogi Adityanath are openly defying him due to patronage from “Delhi Darbar” and have ganged up to check his might.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on his part sought to wash his hands of the humiliating defeat arguing that his feedback on the selection of candidates and advice about repeating most of the sitting Lok Sabha members was ignored by the overconfident BJP high command. He said that the party brass thought that Modi’s popularity would sweep the elections as it was being fought on “Modi ki Guarantee” and that the perceived Modi wave would render the credentials of the candidates meaningless.
In 2024, the BJP’s tally has shrunk to 33 despite acquiring new partners — the RLD, the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), and the Nishad Party — to strengthen its OBC base. Twenty seven sitting members lost elections dashing the party’s dreams of winning more than 400 seats and making history by breaking the record of 414 seats won by Rajiv Gandhi in 1984. In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won 62 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and its tally went up to 64 with its ally, the Apna Dal (Soneylal) winning two seats.
While facing stiff challenge to his leadership, Adityanath is expected to submit a confidential report on the Lok Sabha election results to Modi, Shah, and party national president J.P. Nadda. The report is likely to reveal the names of some of the senior BJP leaders who worked against the party’s candidates. It may further highlight how many candidates constantly misbehaved with party workers and voters, and banked on him (Adityanath) and Modi to ensure their victory.
The report has been prepared by the chief minister after holding region-wise meetings with party MLAs over the last few days, which is meant to counter those submitted to the high command by Maurya and state BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary against him. Maurya stayed away from Adityanath’s meeting with party MLAs from the Allahabad division. However, the chief minister met Pallavi Patel, Apna Dal (K) MLA from Sirathu, Kaushambi, who had defeated Maurya in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Deputy CM Maurya campaigned for party nominees in his native Allahabad division during the general election. But the BJP was defeated in most of the seats, including Allahabad and Kaushambi, his current and ancestral home districts. The BJP also lost in neighbouring Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, and Machhlishahr.
In contrast, the party won the majority of seats in Adityanath’s home turf of eastern Uttar Pradesh, where the chief minister campaigned. These include Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Maharajganj and Domariyaganj.The RSS leadership promoted Yogi Adityanath for a leadership role in the biggest politically crucial state because of his hardcore agenda of Hindutva ideology, thus he finds patronage from it.
