Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday made a cryptic ‘monsoon offer’ amid the speculation of a ‘rift’ within the Uttar Pradesh unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Monsoon offer: Sau lau, sarkar bano, [bring 100, form government],” Mr. Yadav, posted on X. The short post appeared to be a refined version of Mr. Yadav’s past “offer” to Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, where he said “Keshav Prasad Maurya dreamed of becoming the CM, if he brings 100 MLAs, the SP will support him for the CM post,” Mr. Yadav made the offer in mid-2022.
Speculation of rift in the Uttar Pradesh BJP emerged after below expected performance in the recent parliamentary polls in which the ruling party won 33 seats on its own, 29 short of its previous number of 62 Lok Sabha seats won in 2019, and 38 less than 71 seats won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP leaders openly questioning the governance structure in Uttar Pradesh with an MLA from Jaunpur going as far as to demand the need for ‘major’ decisions. Mr. Maurya, other backward classes (OBC) leader, who was the frontrunner for the Chief Minister post in 2017 when the BJP won the Assembly polls and formed the government in Uttar Pradesh after a gap of 14 years, since the last few days reiterated that the party’s organisation is bigger than the government.
“The organisation is bigger than the government. The pain of the workers is my pain. No one is bigger than the organisation, the workers are the pride,” he said, fueling speculations of rumblings. Mr. Maurya also met BJP president J.P. Nadda in New Delhi on July 16. Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 17 and believed to have briefed him on a host of issues related to the party’s organisational matters in the politically crucial State, which sends 80 Lok Sabha members.
