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BJP MP urges party chief Nadda to field Yogi from Mathura
Very humbly, I would like to offer that people in Braj region specially want Yogi ji to contest from Lord Krishna’s Mathura, said BJP Rajya Sabha MP Harnath Singh Yadav in his letter to JP Nadda
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajya Sabha member Harnath Singh Yadav on Monday wrote to party chief JP Nadda requesting him to field UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath from Mathura assembly seat even as state’s deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya also declared his intent to contest the 2022 UP elections.
“I think Yogi ji has said that the party will take a call. My case too won’t be any different. As leaders who have been getting directly elected, we would surely like to contest direct elections than take the legislative council route,” Maurya said in Lucknow on Monday.
In November, Yogi too had said something similar. “I have always contested elections and will contest from wherever the party wants me to,” he had said then, a line he has consistently taken since. BJP leaders and experts say top leaders contesting elections helps not just the seat they contest but also influences party prospects in adjoining seats.
Both Yogi and Maurya had recently described Mathura as the party’s unfinished agenda, stating that like Ayodhya and Kashi, a grand temple would also come up in Mathura too. Mathura—the western UP town believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna—has a prominent mosque—the Shahi Idgah— located next to the Krishna Janmabhoomi (the site believed to be the Lord Krishna’s birthplace). The mosque has been at the centre of a legal battle for years with Hindu groups claiming that the Idgah was built on land where Lord Krishna was born.
“Yogi ji has already declared that he would contest from wherever the party wants him to. Though I am sure that voters in each assembly segment would want Yogi ji to contest from their place but very humbly I would like to offer that people in Braj region specially want Yogi ji to contest from Lord Krishna’s Mathura,” the BJP MP stated in his missive to the party chief who would hold meetings with party leaders and Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow over the party’s preparedness for the assembly elections soon.
The development coincides with the BJP setting in motion the process of screening candidates for ticket selection in the poll bound state. Nadda is also scheduled to visit Lucknow on Monday evening for meetings with party leaders over poll preparedness and party leaders admit that the issue of top leaders getting to contest the state elections might come up for discussion.
Yogi Adityanath, who won his first Lok Sabha election in 1998 at the age of 26, represented Gorakhpur for five terms in a row before resigning as an MP after being named the chief minister in 2017, as did Maurya who had to quit his Phulpur Lok Sabha seat on being named deputy chief minister. Maurya was the first BJP leader to win Phulpur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He had earlier won the 2012 UP polls from Sirathu, an assembly segment, from where some BJP leaders feel that the deputy chief minister could again get to contest from.
“Maurya is hugely popular and will win from anywhere the party wants him to,” said a BJP lawmaker from Prayagraj region. As for the chief minister, it is raining offers for him. Party’s Ayodhya lawmaker Ved Prakash Gupta said he would be happy if the CM contests from the temple town where a Ram temple is coming up and both BJP governments at the centre and in UP have announced massive schemes to make Ayodhya a global pilgrimage town.
BJP leaders in Gorakhpur as well as in Lucknow too want the chief minister to contest from their regions. “I think Maharajji (Yogi Adityanath) will contest from Gorakhpur (rural) seat,” a BJP leader from Gorakhpur said. “Gorakhpur (rural) seat is one where the Gorakhnath Mutt of which Yogi is the head priest has considerable influence,” the party leader said. Yet another party leader has written to Yogi and BJP leadership to field the chief minister from an assembly segment of Lucknow.
