As UP BJP tensions simmer, worry in party over fallout, spread

Given that the BJP prides itself as “the party with a difference”, with disciplined cadres, a leader said: “This infighting could also hurt the party’s prospects in the coming state elections.”

A lot rides on these elections – for the Assemblies of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, as well as Jammu and Kashmir – as they are the first after the BJP failed to reach a simple majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

The rumblings of discontent in the party’s UP unit coincide with disgruntlement in the ranks over the BJP giving poll tickets to new inductees, many of whom lost. A senior leader who is part of the government in the state said this was a pressing issue. “The growing restlessness among the cadres who feel they were ignored in the power-sharing formula, to accommodate the new entries, will have to be addressed. The party leadership must find a way,” the leader said.

While the UP BJP is only now seeing such murmurs, after the poll dent to Adityanath’s authority, the party has for long been struggling with infighting in states such as Rajasthan, Karnataka and poll-bound Maharashtra and Haryana, which could flare up.

At a recent meeting of BJP CMs, the central leadership drilled the message of improving the coordination between CMs and Deputy CMs. The BJP has Deputy CMs in almost all states where it has formed governments recently, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, besides UP.

The message of better coordination between the government and party has also been reiterated in almost all the meetings Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taking with party MPs and state leaders, sources said.

A senior OBC leader and long-time UP BJP face who has held all the top posts in the state, and who expected to be made the CM before being beaten to it by Adityanath, Maurya has been on the offensive since the Lok Sabha results, gambling on a shakier Adityanath and a weakened central BJP leadership not acting against him.

He has asserted at least twice that the “sangathan (the organisation) is bigger than the sarkar (the government)”, and has been hosting MLAs and prominent leaders at his ‘camp office’ in Lucknow, including OBC allies of the BJP such as Om Prakash Rajbhar of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party. Maurya was also notably absent from Adityanath’s meeting with party MLAs of the Prayagraj region.

Those in the Adityanath camp claim it is a preemptive strike by Maurya as the CM has received several complaints against his Deputy. The CM’s supporters are also confident that while Maurya has his support base as an OBC leader, Adityanath is still the most popular BJP face in UP and sidelining him could hurt the party.

BJP leaders give the example of the setbacks suffered by the party on account of the removal of Kalyan Singh and B S Yediyurappa as CMs of UP and Karnataka, respectively. “After Kalyan Singh’s exit in 1999, it took years for the BJP (till 2017) to come back to power in UP,” a senior party leader pointed out.

Similarly, Yediyurappa’s rebellion in 2011 and floating of his own party, winning almost 10% of the votes, was seen as the main reason behind the BJP’s loss in the Karnataka Assembly elections of 2013. The BJP came back to power only after Yediyurappa returned to the party.