YOGI MINISTERS TO GET POLL ROLE
Ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government will report to the BJP office in Lucknow on Monday when the party’s organisational heads are expected to task them with responsibilities for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
LUCKNOW : Ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government will report to the BJP office in Lucknow on Monday when the party’s organisational heads are expected to task them with responsibilities for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
At the meeting, it’s expected that each of the 47 ministers of Adityanath government will be asked to take ownership of Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
Adityanath, who will be away on a tour is expected to return by evening for the meeting for which national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav is expected to fly in from Delhi. The party’s state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal and state chief Mahendra Nath Pandey will also attend the meeting.
On Sunday, Bansal directed the party’s Scheduled Caste cell to plan meetings with influential, academic minded Dalits at the regional level. Dalits and OBCs are crucial to BJP and the party is expected to continue to focus sharply on these numerically dominant groups.
The BJP is also planning meeting of the nearly three crore beneficiaries of various schemes of Modi and Yogi governments. Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, who was in Lucknow for a coordination meeting with the RSS top brass earlier this month, is expected again shortly for addressing ‘cyber warriors’ or ‘cyber yoddhas’ of the party’s IT cell through whom the BJP plans to counter ‘propaganda’ online.
There is considerable buzz around a likely expansion of the Yogi Adityanath government which technically can have 13 more ministers; some of whom are expected to be SC/ST and OBC.
“The problem is that still there are two views on the topic. There is a school of thought advocating expansion to balance caste groups and regions unrepresented so far. But there are far too many in queue for a ministerial berth and that is where the problem is,” a party lawmaker said.
“It’s a catch 22 situation. Expansion is long overdue. But there is risk of annoying many others as more than 100 lawmakers of the party are hoping for a berth. This includes veterans left out so far, key players whose caste gives them an edge and then there are others who know how to pull their weight around the time the party is getting into election mode,” a BJP leader said.
Irrespective of the expansion, from November onwards the ministers are expected to hit the ground running. “The challenge of doing well against a likely SP-BSP coalition in UP is formidable,” a BJP leader said.
While the RSS and the organisation are not happy with the functioning of few ministers, people familiar with the matter said the party wouldn’t like to create “unpleasantness” ahead of the 2019 LS polls in which Shah wants the party to put a “united show.”
By the year-end, the -party is expected to involve the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the pre-election scene and the ministers are required to ensure that the situation in each constituency is studied in detail and feedback shared with party leadership ahead of the first round of Modi rallies which are being finalised.
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It’s a catch 22 situation. Expansion is long overdue. But there is risk of annoying many others as more than 100 lawmakers of the party are hoping for a berth.
A BJP LEADER