Lucknow: The uneasiness between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, which first came to light in the aftermath of the BJP’s poor showing in the state in the Lok Sabha polls and forced an intervention by PM Narendra Modi, is out in the open.
Days after Union minister Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal (Soneylal), a BJP ally, wrote to Yogi about candidates from the OBC/SC/ST categories allegedly being declared “not found suitable” in interview-based recruitment of government jobs, a letter has now surfaced by Maurya to the state government’s Department of Appointment and Personnel about reservation in outsourced jobs. The letter talks about adherence of reservation policy in recruitment for government jobs through outsourcing/contractual mode.
The letter by Maurya, who seems to be asserting himself since the first post-poll working committee meeting of the UP BJP, is addressed to the additional chief secretary (Appointment and Personnel) and was signed on 4 June 2024 — the same day as that of the declaration of Lok Sabha elections results.
However, it was dispatched from Maurya’s office only on 15 July, a day after the executive meeting of UP BJP in Lucknow.
In the letter, a copy of which is with ThePrint, Maurya reminds additional chief secretary Devesh Chaturvedi of a year-old missive from his office to the official on the issue.
“On August 11, 2023, I sought information about the total number of officials/employees who have been deployed by the personnel department in outsourcing/contractual mode. Since the information was not available with the information department, I had written (to the additional chief secretary) that the information be collected and that compliance of an old government order pertaining to reservation be ensured. Hence, information from all departments be collected and presented for my perusal,” it read.
ThePrint has seen Keshav Prasad Maurya’s earlier letter, dated 12 August 2023.
The government order (GO) Maurya refers to in both letters was issued on 23 January 2008, by then principal secretary J.S. Deepak. It stated the UP government’s decision that in the contracts for government jobs being outsourced, it should be ensured that 21 percent of total employment generated via this mode goes to persons from SC category, 2 percent to ST category and 27 percent to OBC category.
“This aforementioned arrangement would not be applicable in those works of PWD, irrigation, rural development departments, etc which are traditionally done on contract basis,” read the GO, a copy of which is with ThePrint.
While an official in the Department of Appointment and Personnel confirmed that Maurya’s latest letter reached the department and is being studied, sources confirmed that no response has been issued to it so far.
Chaturvedi did not respond to queries from ThePrint about Maurya’s letter.
However, a senior UP government official confirmed to ThePrint that in almost all the government jobs that are outsourced, reservation policy is not followed and once a service is outsourced, the agency follows its own mechanism of selection of staff or employees.
Anupriya Patel’s letter, which, too, raised the issue of adherence to the reservation policy in government recruitment solely based on interviews, had drawn a sharp response from the office of the additional chief secretary.
Maurya’s letter was discussed in a meeting Monday of UP BJP secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh and state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary with the two deputy CMs, Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, it is learnt.
While Maurya’s aides maintain that the deputy CM has written several such letters in the past, the latest missive gives thrust to speculation that he is projecting himself as a power centre parallel to Yogi. The move is also being seen against the backdrop of several UP BJP leaders including sitting legislators training their guns on their own party’s government in the state.
Political experts, on the other hand, said the tussle between Yogi and Maurya is evident. The latter, they added, is trying to capitalise on the situation in UP in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha polls debacle.
‘Sangathan sarkar se bada hai’
During the UP BJP’s first post-poll working committee meeting held last Sunday, Maurya created a flutter by repeatedly making his controversial statement: “sangathan sarkar se bada hai.”
(the organisation/party is greater than the government)
He had first made such a remark in August 2022 at a gathering of 38 MPs and MLAs from the Braj and western UP region. Even at the time, the statement was viewed as a veiled message to Yogi, who had been kept out of the BJP parliamentary board just days before.
This time, Maurya’s remarks were followed by his meeting with BJP national president J.P. Nadda on 15 July. Next were meetings between state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary and the party’s central leadership.
Two days after he met with Nadda, Chaudhary also met Modi and reportedly offered to resign, taking responsibility for the party’s greatly reduced Lok Sabha tally in Uttar Pradesh.
What added fuel to the fire was a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), in which Maurya reiterated his stand that the party was bigger than the government and that “the (party) workers’ pain was his own”.
An aide of the deputy CM claimed the remark was aimed at Yogi.
He added, “Those who claim Yogi Adityanath is a leader with a support base should be asked why BJP’s tally dropped to 62 in 2019 after his ascent and later to 33. When he was not the main face in 2017, the party got 312 seats in the assembly polls and in 2022, when he was the CM, the tally dropped to 255. This is his (Yogi’s) popularity.”
The BJP had contested the 2017 assembly polls under the leadership of Maurya as state president.
Asked about Maurya’s latest letter, the aide said, “Given the fact that Maurya ji is a face of the backward community and has been raising their issues, writing letters on issues of reservation policy and employment is natural, especially when the Opposition has capitalised on the issue in the recently-concluded polls.”
A BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh who did not wish to be named told ThePrint that Maurya’s missive serves two purposes: fashion himself as a face of the backward community; and weaken Yogi.
“This is not the first time Maurya ji has made such statements. He is repeating what he did earlier. But only time will tell what impact it will have,” the leader said.
Subsequently, Maurya has held meetings with leaders of two allies of the BJP in UP, namely, O.P. Rajbhar, chief of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and Nishad party chief Sanjay Nishad.
While Rajbhar was invited to a meeting chaired by Yogi with party leaders from Azamgarh region, he met Maurya and gave the meeting chaired by Yogi a miss. Nishad, who met Maurya Tuesday, the latter’s stand about reservations in outsourced jobs. “Some officials ignore our problems due to which you (media) think we are weak. There is no khatpat (infighting) in BJP… a little noise is usual everywhere. Some officials spoil votes,” he said.
Yogi’s loyalists, however, are looking at Maurya’s statements together with a slew of statements made by UP BJP leaders including three MLAs, two MLCs and a former minister. Some have called for “big decisions” by the central leadership to ensure the party’s victory in the 2027 state assembly polls, echoed Maurya about the party being bigger than the government, and hit out at the state bureaucracy.
Another BJP leader from the Yogi camp claimed Maurya was trying to hurt the CM at the behest of a section of the BJP’s central leadership.
“What you are witnessing today is a repeat of 2019 and 2021 when there were attempts to hurt the CM. After the BJP lost the bypolls in Phulpur and Gorakhpur (in 2018), 100 MLAs sat on a protest against the CM. In 2021 too, similar attempts were made to harm the CM. But, can someone… who lost his own seat, in whose division (Prayagraj), BJP lost most Lok Sabha seats… can such a person be compared with Yogi ji?
“This is a larger conspiracy against the CM and the central leadership is behind all this. Everyone knows there are differences between the CM and the Union home minister. Yogi ji is seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate and so is (Amit) Shah,” said the leader.
Big change on cards in UP?
Shashikant Pandey, former HOD (political science) at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, told ThePrint that the latest developments indicate that the next six months could see major changes in the UP BJP.
“Given that the BJP central leadership is contemplating some changes in UP, it is evident that Keshav Maurya is trying to capitalise on the situation. Recent happenings show the BJP high command is contemplating some steps in UP, and it has to take such steps only within the next six months. Even if it is thinking of a major change, it has to be done soon because decisions like changing the CM cannot be taken closer to the state elections, due in 2027,” he said.
Pandey added, “After the 2022 assembly poll win, Yogi Adityanath has established himself as the face of the BJP in UP and is seen as an alternative to Narendra Modi. But given that the BJP has lost a significant chunk of votes of the OBCs and extremely backward castes (EBCs), the high command wants to control the situation. Maurya is trying to capitalise on this situation and disturb the CM’s chair.”
However, some UP BJP leaders felt the changes may be limited to the BJP’s state unit.
“It is possible that the changes are limited to only the BJP’s state unit. The UP BJP state president has already offered to resign and Maurya may be shifted to the organisation at the state or national level. Removing Yogi ji as CM, which is being speculated by some, is not as simple as it seems and given that the Opposition has a chance to hit out at the party for infighting, this will only give more fodder to them,” a senior UP BJP leader said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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