Farmers Movement Archive

Uttar Pradesh: BJP executive political resolution chalks out strategy for 2022 polls

LUCKNOW: The UP BJP laid out a formal blueprint of its political strategy of taking ambitious schemes of the Centre and the state government to the people in a bid to consolidate its position for UP assembly elections due next year. The key point was part of a series of political resolutions which were passed by the party’s state executive committee headed by UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh on Friday. The resolution was put forth by state vice-president and party MLC Laxman Acharya and endorsed by another state VP Pankaj Singh and state secretary Meena Chaubey. The executive made a categorical reference to the recently concluded rural local bodies’ polls in which the BJP claimed a thumping victory, amid opposition’s accusation of misusing government machinery. The party said that its landslide victory in rural polls were a sharp pointer to developmental agenda taken up by the state government, including construction of expressways, providing drinking water facility and wheeling in power to rural households. BJP vice-president and UP in charge Radha Mohan Singh who presided over the political resolution said that the state has been facing a host of challenges including corruption, mafia, terrorism and appeasement politics. He said that the terror accused no longer wielded any respect in the state and action was also initiated against those involved in forced religious conversion. Deputy CM Keshav Maurya said that work of the state government and organisation has elevated the morale of party workers. He claimed that the party was poised to sweep next year’s state elections on the basis of work done by the state government and strength of party organisation. The state executive also green-flagged the resolution of scaling up its activities vis-à-vis Covid management, amid experts expressing their apprehensions about a third wave hitting the state. The move is seen as BJP attempt to counter an assertive opposition which has been seeking to push the ruling party to the wall accusing it over mis-management of pandemic, especially during the lethal second wave. The executive maintained that while experts expressed apprehensions of Covid taking a heavy toll on the country’s most populous state, it was the strategy of leadership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath which helped the ruling party cope up with the pandemic. The party also condemned the opposition stance of spreading rumours and negativity which affected state government efforts to counter the crisis. It also slammed the opposition leaders of maligning the image of scientists engaged in manufacture of vaccines. The executive made a specific mention of Varanasi, saying that the city managed to control the second wave of pandemic within 10 days of its emergence. It was yet another endorsement of Varanasi Model of Covid management which was overseen by BJP MLC Arvind Kumar Sharma, the former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre. In fact, Modi had made a specific mention of the `Varanasi model of Covid management’ during his visit to Ahmedabad in May. The executive also hailed the aggressive vaccination programme taken up by the Yogi government to counter the possibility of the third wave which is feared to impact children. The panel also endorsed the party’s focus on religious centres like Ayodhya where the Ram Temple is being constructed, more than one-and-a-half years after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a temple at the disputed Babri Masjid site. It also discussed the issue of agricultural reforms taken up by the ruling BJP. This comes amid the ongoing agitation by farmers against the new farm laws of the Centre. The farmers’ groups have also threatened to re-group against the state government in the run up to state elections.

The Times of India

2021-07-17

Lucknow