Yogi Adityanath Vs Keshav Prasad Maurya: A lot of people didn’t agree with BJP leader and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya when he said, “The organization is bigger than the government, always has been and will remain so,” at a recent important party meeting. In Uttar Pradesh, the government is run by Yogi Adityanath, who is both an ally and an internal rival of Maurya. Maurya tried very hard to show that he was the voice of the common worker or party worker who is ignored by the government.
He called himself a “karyakarta” before he became deputy chief minister. He said that the average worker should be treated with care and that their concerns should be the first ones heard. Putting everything together, Maurya’s speech was a strong warning to Adityanath and his power-brokers that things can’t keep going the way they are. It was partly about looking into why the BJP did so badly in the most recent Lok Sabha elections, but it also felt like it was personal.
Everyone knows that relations between Maurya and Adityanath are not good
The long-running post-mortem of the 2024 election results has once again brought to the fore the infighting and tussle within the BJP. While the party is trying to contain the infighting, there are indications that it may face its first major political dilemma, if not an outright crisis, in this crucial state since coming to power in 2017.
More than a month after the Narendra Modi-led electoral machinery was routed in the polls, a picture of disunity has emerged in the party. With Maurya’s frequent and long visits to Delhi in recent days and maintaining a calculated silence about his intentions, speculation is rife whether the party’s central leadership is planning to make adjustments in the power structure in the state, redefine Adityanath’s power and elevate Maurya’s position within the party or possibly the government. Though the details are a matter of speculation in the local media, the BJP is in turmoil. How does it seek to logically explain its defeat in Uttar Pradesh , where it tried everything in its electoral quiver but suffered a massive setback?
After June 4, the party has hardly been able to send a message of confidence that it faces difficulties in strengthening its position in the by-elections to 10 assembly seats. The results on these seats will in no way change the overall numbers game, but it will certainly bring out the true depth of the BJP’s problems. The current state of indecision has multiple elements. It reflects not just the distant relationship between the BJP’s two most popular state leaders, but is also symptomatic of unresolved questions on caste equations and governance models that the party needs to resolve if it is to recover from the setback. The dynamics between the state government (Adityanath), the party (Maurya and others) and the Centre (Modi) also need assurances and clarity for the common BJP worker.
While we wait to see how this will turn out, it is important to find out the background of the current situation. This is not the first time Adityanath’s sovereignty or competence has been questioned. Before the 2022 assembly election, there was much speculation over his future as the BJP’s CM face. However, the party eventually gave him the go-ahead and he did well. His success against a spirited opposition in the 2022 election cleared all doubts over his position, until the 2024 results changed the dynamics. The shift of the OBC vote towards the SP, fingers being pointed at Adityanath for giving a free hand to bureaucrats, the arbitrary attitude of the ruling class, discontent among the common workers and the BJP’s elected representatives, all have contributed to Maurya’s rise to prominence. It is no surprise that Maurya seized the opportunity during the party’s state executive meeting in Lucknow on July 14 to challenge the authority of his own government.
In 2017, when the BJP ousted the Samajwadi Party government and won 325 of the 403 seats in the assembly along with its allies, it had no declared CM face. Modi was the face of its campaign and Maurya was the party’s state president. Maurya was given the responsibility primarily because he came from a non-Yadav OBC community. After the results, till the last moment, it seemed that Manoj Sinha, the then MP from Ghazipur, would get the green signal for the CM post. But surprising everyone, the party at the last moment decided to choose Adityanath, the then MP from Gorakhpur, for the top post in the country’s most populous state. Adityanath carries with him not just a hardline saffron ideology but also the ambiguity of caste identity. Despite being born into the Kshatriya Thakur caste, his politics and personality are defined not by his identity but by his dedication to a brand of Hindutva, his association with the Nath sect and the Gorakhnath temple, of which he is the chief priest.
BJP repeated the formula in 2022
To make things fair between castes, the BJP gave OBC Maurya and Brahmin Dinesh Sharma the job of working for him. The BJP used the same plan when Adityanath became chief minister for a second time, starting in 2022. Brajesh Pathak, who came from the BSP, took over as second deputy CM from Brahmin Sharma, who was also from the BSP. But the BJP had to pay a price for their win in 2022. There were big wins for the opposition led by Akhilesh Yadav because OBC votes changed hands in some places, especially in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The SP changed its story to be more clear about how castes are represented and how to bring together more classes.
The SP-led bloc were given 40 three of the eighty seats in the 2024 election. This changed right into a continuation of the a success technique of combating for additonal rights and representation for Hindu castes that have been on the outdoor. The BJP’s loss of its strong keep at the non-Yadav backward castes can also have lengthy-lasting outcomes at the party, as plenty of its fulfillment in UP due to the truth 2014 or even within the 1990s may be traced again to its capacity to win over those agencies, lots of whom are involved in farming, gardening, fishing, animal husbandry, and other conventional sports. It is true that Adityanath supports Modi’s goals. He has often copied Modi’s way of running things. Adityanath has tried to make a name for himself in politics by being aggressive and aligned with Hindutva. He has also marketed himself as a tough leader who doesn’t mind getting into fights, sometimes even with the law.
However, a lot of political experts think that Adityanath or rather the RSS sees him as Modi’s replacement. This may not have gone over well with the top leadership, but Modi has always backed Adityanath in public. In the name of law and order, Modi gave him the name “Upi,” which means “useful for UP,” and has even given him permission to use bulldozers to scare off opponents.
It’s additionally actual that Adityanath had his very own wagon when he became CM, despite the fact that he became nicely-liked in eastern UP. But inside the seven years he has been governor of UP, Adityanath has become a properly-favored leader who isn’t restricted to Gorakhpur or even the country. Aside from Modi and Shah, the BJP doesn’t have many leaders who are as lively or famous throughout the united states as Adityanath. In maximum of north and principal India, humans like what he says at election events.
Party’s image is damaged, Yogi is on back foot due to these issues
People in UP, on the other hand, think that bureaucrats and police officers have too much power over local party workers and regional elected officials while he is in office. There have been a number of these kinds of problems.
A police sub-inspector in Lucknow was recently fired after being found guilty of abusing BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi while Tripathi was on his way home from a family trip after arriving at the airport. The reputation of Adityanath’s government has also been harmed by deaths in prison and the destruction of property and homes.
One of Adityanath’s favorite police officers, UP DGP Prashant Kumar, sent a message to his coworkers on July 18 about how to stop people from dying in jail. Just two days before that, Adityanath took a step back. He stopped the digital attendance system for school teachers after protests and calmed the fears of people who live in three Lucknow neighborhoods near the Kukrail canal that their homes would be torn down.
Yogi did not allow Modi’s close aide to become deputy CM
There are also rumors that Adityanath’s wings will be cut off by the Center. We can’t be sure of what’s going on in the BJP behind closed doors, but Adityanath has fought every effort by the Center to limit his authority and work since 2017. The most talked-about thing about him is that he refused to make AK Sharma, a former official who is close to Modi, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Sharma is a cabinet minister in Adityanath’s second term. He is in charge of energy and urban development, among other important areas.
The BJP is getting ready for the political task of bringing the state unit back together, as well as the longer-term goal of 2027. In Lucknow, everyone is wondering if this can be done by promoting Maurya and reducing Adityanath.
The party is in a tough spot here. It can’t take the chance of replacing the elected chief minister in the middle of a tough state like UP. It will be a big step, though, if the high command does it. But it also needs to change some things, especially to keep party workers and MLAs happy, as well as to keep OBC votes in its favor and keep Dalit support from going to the opposition.
Then what is BJP’s problem?
They each carry something special to the BJP. Adityanath is the top priest of the Gorakhnath temple. He has a good track report in elections in Gorakhpur, and his guru taught him a way to run a huge temple. When he become in the competition, he became visible as someone who commenced fights and brought about trouble. But since he took office, he has been visible as a hard Hindutva chief who punishes people without going to courtroom.
In addition to being a great speaker and knowledgeable about Hindutva theory, Adityanath has become well-known for the way he runs the government and his saffron charm.
Keshav was associated with RSS since childhood, sold tea and newspapers like Modi
Maurya, on the other hand, is an organizer and the BJP-RSS’s own internal OBC vote. He has been trained in Hindutva as part of the Sangh Parivar’s long-term plan to attract OBCs who are not Yadavs. Before getting jobs with the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Maurya started his work as a child volunteer. It was with these groups that he took part in movements to protect cows. The BJP often says that his past is like Modi’s. They say that he, too, sold newspapers and tea as a child, just like Modi.
In 2017, the BJP ran for office without a clear candidate for chief minister. However, Maurya’s supporters thought that if the BJP won, he would be the obvious choice for the top job because the party’s main issue was against the Yadav OBCs. Adityanath was chosen by the BJP’s top leaders. The title of “deputy CM” was enough for Maurya. The opposition made fun of Maurya during the Adityanath government’s term from 2017 to 2022. They called him the “stool wale deputy CM” to show that the BJP had only used the OBCs to get votes and wasn’t ready to give his son any real power or even a chair. Again, Akhilesh Yadav tried to take advantage of the situation when he joked that Maurya and 100 BJP MLAs could join the SP. In exchange, the SP would back him for the job of CM.
That why Adityanath and Maurya are not the best of partners become evident when Adityanath was asked to vacate the fifth floor of the “Annexe” building in the government, which is considered as the nerve center of the state in Lucknow City. Maurya, however, could not agree that Adityanath’s organisation, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, was distinct from the other outfits. He opted to leave the matter by arguing that he was among the very first to join the organization and not a voguer. There is more and more likelihood today that Maurya will have a larger role in BJP decision making in Uttar Pradesh in future.
There will be a new wave of OBC and Dalit politics after the 2024 election. The Constitution, reservations, and security will be the major issues. It is very important for the BJP to do a lot to reach out to these groups. The easy answer is to choose an OBC person as CM before 2027. It was with their votes that the BJP and its partners won 325 seats in 2017 and 273 seats in 2022. As a member of the RSS, Maurya would want to rise to power after having been Adityanath’s assistant for two terms. Kalyan Singh was the BJP’s last OBC chief minister. The party will have to think about picking an OBC as head of state sooner or later if it wants to keep the trust of these groups.
But getting rid of Adityanath now, so soon after the election, could hurt the party’s “double engine government” claim. The big question for the BJP leadership is how to make room for Adityanath. In addition, Maurya can’t boast of the personality that Adityanath has built up over the years, even though his name helps the party. On the other hand, an angry Adityanath may not be helpful for the BJP, especially for the eastern UP which had suffered a huge loss in the 2022 and 2024 assembly polls. The BJP, too, appears to be very interested in the process; but what role does it wish to assume? It has to act now, before bye-elections, to prevent an icy relationship between the UP chief minister and a key party leader.
ALSO READ:-Coach Gautam Gambhir presents Indian cricket vision at maiden news conference.