Yogi to lead BJP in 2022 UP polls, says AK Sharma
“In the 2022 UP polls to be held under your and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s stewardship, the BJP would win even more seats than before,” AK Sharma said in a letter to UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will go into next year’s assembly elections with chief minister Yogi Adityanath at the helm of affairs, AK Sharma, the party’s newly-appointed vice president in Uttar Pradesh, said in a letter to UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh. The letter, sent on Sunday, was released to the media on Monday before the visiting BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and other leaders of the party’s core committee entered a meeting with Adityanath.
“In the 2022 UP polls to be held under your and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s stewardship, the BJP would win even more seats than before,” Sharma, a retired IAS officer close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said in the letter that is seen as an attempt to stamp out speculation about friction within the party on leadership issues.
Like when UP labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya spoke about fighting the 2022 elections under Adityanath’s leadership on Monday but added that the party leadership will decide on the chief minister after the election. BJP leaders rushed to explain that the minister was merely reiterating the formal procedure of newly-elected lawmakers selecting their leader after the elections.
AK Sharma letter also underscored PM Modi’s continuing popularity among people in the state. “In my view, people of UP love Modiji just as much as they did in 2013-14 and this great leader’s name and patronage is enough to win elections.”.
