Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Credit: PTI Photo
Lucknow: The results of the assembly by-polls in Uttar Pradesh in which the BJP won seven of the nine seats, have once again established the supremacy of saffron-clad chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had come under attack from his senior colleagues in the party after BJP’s below par performance in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.
Adityanath was blamed for BJP’s poor performance in the state and UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and some other leaders had said that the chief minister had ignored the ordinary party workers.
Yogi’s detractors had then also questioned his style of functioning. BJP could win only 33 seats in the state in the LS polls though it had won 62 seats in the 2019 LS poll.
‘’The impressive performance of the saffron party in the by-polls will certainly silence his critics within the party’’, said a senior UP BJP leader here.
The by-polls were billed as a mini-poll and stakes were very high for Adityanath as a below-par performance would certainly have weakened his position in the BJP. ‘’It was an acid test for Adityanath….he has proved that he is irreplaceable,’’ the leader remarked.
And Adityanath knew it very well. Keeping that in mind he had deployed his trusted ministers in all the by-poll-bound constituencies. He also visited the constituencies where the by-polls were slated and addressed a series of election meetings.
He also successfully used his slogan ‘batenge to katenge’ (if Hindus are divided they will be slaughtered) in the by-polls to polarize the electorate along religious lines and also managed to motivate the party workers.
‘’The results of the by-polls will put at rest all talks of a change of guard in the state,’’ the leader added.
Of the nine seats, where the by-polls were held, five were held by the Samajwadi Party (SP), three by the BJP and one each by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Nishad Party, both BJP alliance partners. BJP wrested two seats from the SP in the by-polls.
Adityanath’s slogan also came in handy for the saffron party in Maharashtra where the Mahayuti swept the assembly polls.