From police stations and tehsil offices to block and district headquarters, a familiar complaint continues to resonate among the RSS-BJP grassroots cadre in Uttar Pradesh: while the government may be theirs, the administration often does not listen to them.
The grievance, which emerged prominently during the BJP’s review of its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has resurfaced in feedback meetings being held by the party and the RSS ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.
In Kanpur last week, a few BJP office-bearers complained to national general secretary (Organisation) BL Santosh about the lack of response to party workers at police stations. Santosh’s response was interesting: workers need not keep making rounds of police stations and should concentrate on strengthening the organisation.
The similar grievances surfaced days later at the RSS-BJP coordination meeting for the Awadh region in Lucknow and a day later in meetings chaired by BJP national general secretary and party’s UP in-charge Vinod Tawde in Gorakhpur.
Workers shared their “pain” of allegedly not being heard at government offices, including thanas and tehsils. Senior leaders acknowledged the grievance but advised workers to put it aside and focus on organisational work and the coming election.
{{/usCountry}}Workers shared their “pain” of allegedly not being heard at government offices, including thanas and tehsils. Senior leaders acknowledged the grievance but advised workers to put it aside and focus on organisational work and the coming election.
{{/usCountry}}According to many, what makes the complaint politically significant is its longevity. After the BJP’s setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the party’s review had recorded allegations that its cadre had been ignored or “humiliated” at local police stations and tehsil offices, continuing their disenchantment and lack of enthusiasm during the campaign.
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya spoke on the issue only after the 2024 outcome by saying during a high-level meeting in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath that “organisation is above the government”. He maintained and reiterated his statement several times thereafter.
The issue has not been confined to ordinary workers. BJP MLAs too have repeatedly complained about bureaucrats not responding to elected representatives, prompting the state government to issue directives from time to time on following the prescribed protocol. It once found an echo in the assembly also.
Behind these grievances, there is believed to be a deeper comparison. BJP workers privately contrast their experience with earlier SP and BSP regimes when party workers were perceived to wield considerable influence at police stations and other government offices.
“We do not experience the feeling of being part of the government despite our party being in power in the state since 2017. Since we cannot get small things done for our supporters, we cease to be taken seriously by them,” a BJP leader said, drawing a contrast with earlier regimes.
Senior BJP leader and UP minister Daya Shankar Singh acknowledged that party workers sometimes feel frustrated when they recall the kind of influence the other parties’ workers wielded at local offices during their governments.
“But this is what makes the BJP different from other political parties. For the BJP, the interest of the society as a whole is supreme while for other political parties individual and family interests are more important,” he said. “We do not interfere in day-to-day administration.” he added.
Another BJP leader offered a different interpretation by arguing that officials do listen when they know that a particular political leader has the ability to influence their career or cause trouble but ordinary party workers and even some elected representatives can be given the cold shoulder. “Most officials try to keep one most influential leader with a nuisance value in good humour in each district while keeping others waiting,” he said.
The tension between a cadre expecting political access and the government insisting on administrative discipline may become increasingly important as the BJP enters the final stretch before the 2027 polls.
For the moment, the message from the central leadership appears to be that the grievance is acknowledged and recorded but the cadre must not allow it to distract them from the election. “Now, the time for making and listening to complaints is over as we are already on the battlefield where the only goal must be to emerge the winner,” another minister said.