Gopamau legislator Shyam Prakash says CM Yogi Adityanath is helpless, blames Amit Shah aide Sunil Bansal for state of administration.
New Delhi: There is discontent brewing in the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit following its loss in the Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll, with MLAs expressing anger at the way things are being run in the party and the state.
The disapproval, however, is not aimed at chief minister Yogi Adityanath but at Sunil Bansal, a senior party official considered close to BJP president Amit Shah.
On Thursday, BJP MLA from Gopamau Shyam Prakash released a poem, alleging corruption in the state and that even the chief minister was “helpless” in tackling it. In the poem, Prakash indirectly refers to Bansal, who was the RSS pointsman in UP but is now the party general secretary in the state.
“You came to power in Modi’s name, but couldn’t do the work people wanted/ The reins are in the hands of the Sangh, organisation, and even the CM is helpless/ The people and legislators are suffering, the authorities and the president are corrupt/ The train has gone off the rails, the bureaucracy has failed/This is a signal to the wise, the decision is now yours,” he wrote.
But Prakash told ThePrint that his poem should not be seen as an attack on the Adityanath government, rather as a plea to introspect before “things got too late”. He alleged that the UP administration was now being run by Bansal.
“There was a case pushed by many MLAs who wanted a district magistrate (DM) transferred. We all went to the chief minister but our letter reached Bansal within hours. He scolded the MLAs rather than taking our side and said it was he who had sent the DM and that no one can remove him,” Prakash said.
The MLAs, Prakash said, felt that even party state president D.R. Mahendra Nath Pandey had become irrelevant.
Dalit votes — a distant hope
The repeated bypoll defeats in Uttar Pradesh are giving the state’s BJP MLAs the jitters. They believe that the party’s policies, perceived to be against Dalits, may bring it down in the state.
“Muslims are in unity against BJP. Now, Dalit voters have become disillusioned with the party. The government has stopped scholarships to primary school children, which was a major incentive for the Dalit community. There are many such things,” said a senior MLA on the condition of anonymity.
Such concerns have been voiced before, even publicly.
In April, four BJP Dalit MPs from Uttar Pradesh had openly voiced concern at the way the party leadership has handled issues of Dalits in the state. The four — Savitri Bai Phule, Chhote Lal Kharwar, Ashok Kumar Dohre and Yashwant Singh – alleged that the BJP’s handling of issues such as the Supreme Court ruling on the SC/ST Atrocities Act, gave the impression that the party does not support reservation.
Worker dissatisfaction
A section of party MLAs believe also workers are being ignored. The administration, they said, ignores them too.
“We are not being heard. Officials do not fear us and do not complete our projects, how are we supposed to win elections?” said one of the MLAs.
Another alleged that even the chief minister, in a fit of frustration, complained of not being heard.