Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader BL Santosh has praised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “effective” management of COVID-19 in the state, hours after completing his two-day review meeting in the state capital Lucknow.
The tweet by the party's top leader from Delhi puts to rest speculation that the party might replace Adityanath and his two deputy chief ministers ahead of next year’s assembly polls in UP.
"In five weeks, Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh reduced the new daily case count by 93% ... Remember it's a state with 20+ Cr population. When municipality CMs could not manage a city of 1.5Cr population, Yogiji managed quite effectively," Santosh, the BJP's national general secretary said in a tweet after returning to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh.
In five weeks, yogiadityanath?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@myogiadityanath's Uttar Pradesh reduced the new daily case count by 93% ... Remember it’s a state with 20+ Cr population . When municipality CMs could not manage a city of 1.5Cr population , Yogiji managed quite effectively .— B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) June 1, 2021
Santosh and former Union Minister Radha Mohan Singh, who is also UP in-charge, landed in Lucknow on May 31. The two leaders met ministers in the Adityanath cabinet during the visit. They also met Adityanath on their first day, and his two deputies, separately, on June 1, as per reports.
Keshav Maurya, one of the Deputy Chief Ministers, said in a brief statement on June 1 that he had a ‘positive’ meeting with the leaders from Delhi.
READ: PM Modi speaks to UP CM Yogi Adityanath, takes stock of COVID-19 situation in the state
“The BJP will win 300 seats in the 2022 assembly polls," he said. A press release issued by UP BJP said that the two leaders from Delhi assessed work done by the party for COVID-19 relief across the state in the last few months.
The BJP won the 2017 UP assembly polls by an overwhelming majority of 325 of the 403 seats despite not projecting a chief ministerial candidate before the election. Adityanath was later declared the CM.
UP assembly polls assume significance for the party because the performance in the largest-populated state in 2020 would be crucial for the 2024 general elections. UP has 80 Lok Sabha seats and 403 assembly seats.
Follow our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic here.
In the past few months, Adityanath-led government has faced criticism from various quarters particularly over the alleged mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic in one of the worst-affected states of the country. Opposition leaders apart, even the members of the ruling BJP have questioned the Adityanath government’s handling of the second wave of the COVID-19. Images of bodies floating in the Ganga river in many districts of the state had recently generated criticism too.
The BJP has, of late, been working on an election strategy for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections scheduled to be held after eight months.
Also, read: UP gearing up to tackle COVID's possible 3rd wave, black fungus infection: CM Yogi Adityanath
On May 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah reportedly attended a meeting of the BJP and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to discuss the party's strategy. What followed was a four-day visit by RSS ‘sarkaryavah’ or general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale to Lucknow to seek feedback from key state-level office-bearers on the public perception of the UP government.
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