Blunting public anger over Covid handling on top of BJP’S agenda
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership’s instruction to its lawmakers from Uttar Pradesh is to find ways to mitigate possible public anger over the state government’s handling of the second wave of the Covid pandemic that could cast a shadow over next year’s assembly elections.
According to people familiar with the matter, the party‘s top brass has asked the lawmakers to reach out to the masses with the message that the government took timely steps to address systemic failures that resulted in shortage of oxygen, hospital beds and essential medicines causing loss of lives.
At a two-day meeting of lawmakers from the election-bound state that concluded on Thursstate
NEW DELHI:
day, the message was to undo the damage to the government’s credibility by ensuring a hasslefree vaccination drive and provision of essential supplies in case of an anticipated third wave.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath was also present at the meetings that were chaired by BJP president JP Nadda.
“There is a lot of work that has been accomplished in the
vis-a-vis development, crackdown on criminals, making arrangements to invite investors to the state but the second wave made a dent in the government’s track record. No state, including UP, was prepared for the scale of the pandemic and the challenges it brought with it. But since we are in power we cannot escape public anger,” said a party functionary aware of the details who asked not to be named.
The party’s instruction to lawmakers is based on feedback from the ground and from its ideological mentor the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh indicating that the Covid crisis will play a decisive role in shaping the electoral outcome. Besides this, the lawmakers were also asked to address the issue of the ongoing protests against three reformist farm laws the government passed last year.
PARTY BRASS HAS ASKED LEADERS TO REACH OUT TO THE MASSES WITH THE MESSAGE THAT
THE GOVT TOOK TIMELY STEPS TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC FAILURES