CM Yogi meets BJP National General Secretary BL Santosh in Delhi

New Delhi [India], July 27 (ANI): Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met BJP National General Secretary BL Santosh in New Delhi in the late hours of Friday.

As per the sources, several issues involving the organisation and the UP government were discussed, along with the upcoming ten assembly by-elections.

This comes in the backdrop of the BJP facing a major vote share decline in key constituencies in Uttar Pradesh in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, where the BJP was reduced to 33 seats, down from its 2019 tally of 62 seats. The SP won 37 seats, its highest Lok Sabha tally, and the Congress six.

Moreover, another NDA vs INDIA faceoff is in the offing in the high-stakes by-election to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh and the outcome could be decisive for state politics. CM Yogi Adityanath has been holding a series of meetings for the upcoming by-elections.

The BJP-led NDA is aiming to bounce back from the disappointment of the Lok Sabha election, while the SP and Congress-led INDIA bloc aim to consolidate their hold by increasing their tally.

The by-poll results will also set the tone for the 2027 UP. assembly election. However, what was raising the eyebrows of many, two deputy Chief Ministers, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, were absent in different meetings chaired by CM Yogi.

CM Yogi Adityanath on July 14 said that everyone will have to be active from now on for the Assembly by-elections to be held on 10 seats in the state and the 2027 Assembly elections.

Addressing the state working committee meeting held at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Auditorium of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, CM Yogi emphasised that they have to hoist the BJP flag once again in the state.

“The percentage of votes that was in favour of BJP in 2014 and subsequent elections, BJP has been successful in getting the same number of votes in 2024 as well, but the shifting of votes and overconfidence have hurt our expectations. The opposition, which had earlier accepted defeat and sat down, is again jumping and dancing today,” he added.

Taking a dig at the UP Govt, after a post by the Deputy CM, Keshav Prasad Maurya mentioning that the organisation was bigger than the government set political temperatures soaring, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav announced a monsoon offer on Thursday, where he asked dissidents to bring a hundred MLAs and form the government in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav took to X, announcing the offer, saying, “Monsoon Offer: Bring a hundred, form the government!”

On Wednesday, Deputy CM KP Maurya caused a flutter with a post on X from his office that quoted Maurya as saying, “The organisation is bigger than the government; the pain of the workers is my pain. No one is bigger than the organisation; the workers are the pride.”

The post made the opposition speculate that this was a sign of dissent in the BJP. Yadav also alleged that the BJP’s fight for power meant it wasn’t thinking about the public.

Afterwards, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya took a jibe at Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and said that BJP is strong at both state and national levels and is going to be victorious in the assembly polls in 2027 as it was in 2017.

“SP Bahadur Shri Akhilesh Yadav ji, BJP has a strong organisation and government both at national level and state levels; the SP’s PDA is a fraud. The return of SP’s hooliganism in UP is impossible, BJP will repeat 2017 in the 2027 assembly elections,” said Maurya in a post on X on Wednesday.