Amit Shah in UP, to tackle rising discontent

Lucknow, July 29 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, who arrived here on Saturday on a three-day visit, is expected to tackle several issues dogging the party in the state, including reports of growing disenchantment among party workers with the Yogi Adityanath government.

Soon after his arrival at the Chowdhary Charan Singh International Airport where he was received by Chief Minister Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and many other ministers. Shah was mobbed by party workers, garlanded and showered with rose petals.

Shah is to meet office bearers of various frontal organizations, ministers and other leaders at the 18 meetings he is scheduled to preside over. He will also interact with the functionaries of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Singh (RSS).

BJP sources say there has been growing disenchantment within the party workers about the state government. Accusations that the bureaucrats were riding roughshod over party workers was also worrying the central leadership.

Reports of growing tension between Deputy Chief Minister Maurya, also the state BJP chief, and Chief Minister Adityanath is also likely to come up. Shah is likely to counsel them on the issue that threatens to wreck the huge mandate the party won in the 2017 state Assembly elections.

Shah is accompanied by BJP national Vice President and in-charge of the state, Om Prakash Mathur, and national General Secretary Arun Singh. Shah is also to meet office bearers of the Kashi, Gorakhpur, Avadh and Kanpur regions amid reports that the organization is feeling "let down" by the state government.

BJP MPs had met Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and voiced their disenchantment with the state government last week in New Delhi.

"Shah's fire-fighting skills are to be put to use in the balance of power between the organization and the government in UP, which is very crucial for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," a party leader told IANS.

Coincidentally, three senior legislators of the Samajwadi Party quit the party on Saturday, spurring rumours that they are likely to join the BJP.

The BJP president is also likely to deliberate on the vacancies that would arise after resignations of Adityanath as Gorakhpur MP and Keshav Prasad Maurya as Phoolpur MP and their subsequent election to either House of the state Assembly before September 19.