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Ministers come and go, I consider myself a party worker: Keshav Prasad Maurya
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya keeps up suspense on his “organisation bigger than government” tweet
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Wednesday kept up the suspense on his three-day-old tweet — “organisation bigger than the government” — as well as the appointment of a new state BJP chief in Uttar Pradesh.
“Ministers come and go. I consider myself a party cadre and this is something that all party workers know,” Maurya, the BJP’s most prominent OBC leader in U.P, said on Wednesday. His tweet on Sunday had sparked a buzz on the state party president’s post.
Names of at least three ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 are doing the rounds as possible contenders for the key post though some feel that a Union minister from U.P. could also be in the running.
Maurya’s Wednesday remark was made in the backdrop of such speculation during his trip to Amethi, a Congress bastion that fell to the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
During his trip, the BJP leader had lunch at a dalit booth president’s place and targeted the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. Still, the focus was riveted on his recent tweet.
“The party is like our mother. In our party such decisions (like appointment of U.P. BJP chief), are taken by the organisation. I continue to maintain that the organisation is bigger than the government because governments are formed because of the organisational support and not vice versa,” Maurya said when asked if he was in the running for the key post.
Maurya’s tweet had assumed importance as it was made after the party meeting, in which he was present, with the new general secretary (organisation) Dharampal in Ghaziabad recently. It was Dharampal’s first interaction with the party leaders after taking up his new assignment.
Maurya has been a state BJP chief once. Under him, the BJP, riding the phenomenal Modi wave, won its biggest ever mandate in U.P. in the 2017 assembly elections, overcoming the SP-Congress alliance.
Only recently, at a function in Lucknow, Maurya had attracted attention by praising former BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, crediting him for the massive win the party notched up in U.P. with him as the state chief.
The post of general secretary (organisation) in the BJP is reserved for a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) pracharak who acts as a bridge between the party and the Sangh.
However, as national general secretary now, Bansal is now fully into the BJP. His visit to Lucknow this time, was undertaken as BJP leader, party leaders said.
“I have been a U.P. BJP chief, too, and though the party chief gets accolades on the win, it is Bansal who has been the architect of the party’s phenomenal “shunya se shikhar (from 0 to top)” performance in U.P.,” Maurya had said at the function.
After Bansal’s elevation as national general secretary tasked with the responsibility of three non-BJP states, the BJP now has a new state general secretary (organisation) in U.P.
Dharampal, an OBC leader from western U.P, has already held several rounds of meetings within days of taking charge.
“There were about 3000 people to meet him. Today, he isn’t well but it is clear that after the announcement of a new state chief, the party would (have) a new set of office bearers in the state, appointments that would be made with 2024 Lok Sabha polls in mind,” a BJP leader said.
BHUPENDRA CHAUDHARY MEETS NADDA AMID SPECULATION
Amid speculation on new U.P. BJP chief, Bhupendra Chaudhary, a minister in the Yogi government 2.0, a Jat leader from west U.P., met BJP president J P Nadda in Delhi on Wednesday evening.
Chaudhary, some BJP leaders suggested, could replace Swatantar Dev Singh, who has been made the Jal Shakti minister in the Yogi Adityanath-led government. However, there is no confirmation yet on the leader likely to be the new state BJP chief.
With the chief minister hailing from eastern Uttar Pradesh, the BJP looks to strike a regional balance with the appointment of Chaudhary as the party’s state chief. Coincidentally, Dharampal, the new BJP general secretary (organisation) is also an OBC (Jat) from west U.P.
