Amit Shah to camp in UP to assess govt

Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah will camp in Lucknow for three days at the end of this month to make an assessment of the four-month-old Yogi Adityanath-government and also, to resolve issues between the party and the government.

The biggest issue that will be placed before the BJP president is regarding the elections of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and two ministers Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza to the state legislature.

All five are not yet members of either Houses of the state legislature and have barely two months left to be get elected.

Party sources said that there was a strong possibility of Mr Maurya being accommodated as minister of state in the Union cabinet. Mr Maurya’s cold war with the chief minister is already the talk of the town.

Besides, reports of Mayawati contesting as a joint Opposition candidate from Phulpur where a by-election will take place if the seat is vacated by Mr Maurya, has caused unease in the BJP camp and the party does not wish to take any risk at this stage.

Yogi Adityanath will be contesting from either Gorakhpur or Ayodhya and there are no guesses on the outcome of his election. Dinesh Sharma, who is already the leader of the House in the Vidhan Parishad, could be accommodated in the Upper House.

The fate of Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza will be decided by the BJP president. However, the most important issue that will come up during Mr Shah’s visit is that of the under-performance of about half a dozen ministers in the Yogi government.

UP BJP MPs, in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week in Delhi, had complained against these ministers, accusing some of corruption. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has also been apprised of the matter.

Sources said that Yogi Adityanath wanted to reshuffle portfolios and drop some ministers on the basis of their report cards. The matter will be put up before the party president and a decision is likely to be taken.

The BJP has already prepared a report based on the feedback from various district on the performance of the Yogi government as a whole and the ministers in particular. It is on the basis of this report that the BJP president will draft his future strategy for Uttar Pradesh and implement it in time for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.