Top BJP leader leaves with two tweets and advice
LUCKNOW: Key Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader BL Santhosh, currently serving as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national general secretary (organisation), completed a suspensefilled three-day feedback session with the Yogi Adityanath government’s ministers with two tweets and advice — both to the party and the government.
The tweets praised Adityanath’s handling of the Covid situation, signalling the BJP high command’s backing of the UP chief minister, under fire from the Opposition and some of his party lawmakers for alleged mismanagement of Covid. Santhosh’s advice, both to the party and the government, was to project a united front, people aware of the matter said.
While underscoring the need for unity, he also called for taking the achievements of the Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath governments to the people, they said.
The two tweets by Santhosh praising Adityanath’s handling of the Covid crisis were interpreted by Yogi supporters as proof of the chief minister continuing to be in the good books of the RSS and party top leadership.
The CM’s detractors emphasised that much shouldn’t be read into the tweets as the kind of one-on-one meetings that the top RSS leader holding a key post in BJP held over three days, were unprecedented.
“I haven’t seen such feedback sessions being held anywhere,” an old party hand said, emphasising that there was more to the one-on-one meetings than met the eye.
Before leaving for Delhi, BJP’s national vice president and UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh described the Yogi government’s handling of the Covid situation as “unparalleled”.
Asked if changes were expected in the ruling party and some rejig of ministries might happen at the government level, a senior BJP leader said, “The message of the central BJP leadership is clear. We can’t go into the elections looking like a divided house. That is the spirit behind those two tweets - first one praising Yogiji’s handling of the Covid crisis and then the second one praising him for vaccinating parents of children below
“In five weeks, @myogiadityanath’s Uttar Pradesh reduced the new daily case count by 93 per cent. Remember it’s a state with 20+ Cr population,” Santhosh tweeted. “When municipality CMs could not manage a city of 1.5Cr population, Yogiji managed quite effectively,” Santhosh added, after two days of feedback collection featuring one-onone session with key ministers who were called at the BJP office in Lucknow.
The “municipality CM” jibe was in obvious reference to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had contested the recent panchayat polls in UP and has indicated plans to contest the 2022 assembly polls in the state. AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has been active in the state, targeting BJP government’s handling of Covid and comparing it with Delhi’s Covid management.