Why a dinner meeting of BJP’s Brahmin MLAs in Lucknow chill has raised political temperature in UP

The meeting began around 7 pm and continued till midnight, it is learnt. Interestingly, a similar informal gathering of Kshatriya MLAs of the party had taken place in Lucknow during the monsoon session of the Assembly.

Calling it a “routine informal meeting” of the legislators during the Assembly session, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said, “All of them are in Lucknow. It should not be seen from the caste or any other angle. Whenever the MLAs are here for the Assembly session, they meet each other. This should not be seen as a gathering of Brahmins or any other community,” said Maurya.

MLA PN Pathak, who hosted the dinner, echoed Maurya’s statement, saying, “It was a mere community dinner. Everyone wanted to sit together to eat ‘litti chokha’, so I invited them. We largely discussed the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state and development works in our areas. We are all satisfied with the state government’s working,”.

Pathak represents the Kushinagar Assembly constituency.

Sources, on the other hand, claimed that among the main topics of the discussion during the dinner meeting was alleged bias against the Brahmin community and that they were being sidelined. They also stressed the need for coming together and raising their voice, it is learnt.

On the other hand, MLA Anil Tripathi, who claimed to be part of the dinner meeting, said while speaking to mediapersons, “Since we were there for about four hours, discussions were held on both social and political issues. One of our biggest concerns was that our community contributed significantly to the formation of Bharat, but today, people of Brahmin samaj are being humiliated in society,” said Tripathi.

He, however, clarified that it was a social and general concern and had nothing to do with the working of the government. “It should not be made political,” he added.

Ratnakar Mishra, another MLA who was part of the meeting, spoke about the development in a lighter tone, saying the meeting was for social issues such as instilling “sanskars” (values) among people.

Among those who attended the meeting are MLAs Ratnakar Mishra, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, and Ramesh Mishra, and MLCs Saket Mishra and Umesh Dwivedi. Also, a video of the meeting went viral on social media.

Despite the BJP leaders’ clarifications, the Opposition took a jibe at the ruling party over the development, claiming that all is not well within the ruling party.

“It is clear that members of the ruling party are divided, as leaders of a particular caste are getting special attention. Members of a particular caste are getting bigger vehicles, while Brahmins are facing action. So this gathering did not come as a surprise,” said Samajwadi Party MLA Amitabh Bajpai.

Earlier this year, BJP MLA and minister Pratibha Shukla sat on a dharna at the Akbarpur police station, alleging that Brahmins were not being respected in the state. She had targeted party MP Devendra Singh, alleging does not stand for Brahmins even as they voted for him.

Responding to the meeting, state minister and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar said, “This country was earlier an agrarian society, but now it is a caste-based society. If certain castes feel they are facing a problem, they should rather meet the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister to find a solution.”