Before UP polls, how BJP is seeking to tackle pockets of internal discontent

Four months before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP has launched a feedback exercise to iron out internal differences.

While several regional BJP leaders have flagged the “disappointment” that party workers feel due to their alleged neglect by sections of the party leadership and state administration, senior leaders have told the district functionaries they were not doing enough to counter the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) attacks on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his government.

The feedback was shared at recent organisational meetings chaired by senior leaders of the BJP and the RSS. The meetings were held separately by BJP national president Nitin Nabin, the party’s UP co-in-charges Jagdish Patel and Pradip Kumar Varma, and RSS sah-sarkaryawah (joint general secretary) Arun Kumar. The meetings were organised in Varanasi and Sultanpur earlier this month as part of the statewide exercise to galvanise the BJP’s regional leaders and workers ahead of the 2027 polls.

“The meetings were held to let party workers vent. This exercise allows us to pacify them. The BJP and Sangh will take note of the concerns raised,” a senior UP BJP functionary said on the condition of anonymity.

Nabin chaired a meeting in Varanasi city on October 8 with the BJP’s former office-bearers in the Kashi region. At the meeting, a leader questioned the party’s “criteria” for rewarding workers, it is learnt. The leader alleged that “those who meet top party leaders in Delhi and Lucknow with flower bouquets get positions in the organisational teams, whereas those who work on the ground are neglected,” sources said. BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani, UP state president Pankaj Chaudhary, and Jagdish Patel were also present.

A BJP leader is learnt to have said that allotting Assembly election tickets and ministerial berths to “outsiders” might be “acceptable”, but accommodating them in senior organisational posts “makes it difficult for dedicated workers to work with them”. Another leader suggested replacing sitting MLAs in the Varanasi region with fresh faces, sources said.

On October 14-15, Patel and Varma chaired a two-day workshop of BJP vistaraks (full-time workers tasked with outreach and expansion) and in-charges of the Kashi region’s 71 Assembly seats and the Gorakhpur region’s 62 constituencies. At the workshop, held in Varanasi city, the central leaders expressed concern that district functionaries, including MLAs, were “not showing enthusiasm” in defending the CM and the state government against the SP’s allegations and attacks using AI-generated videos.

“It was discussed that while SP workers were enthusiastic and aggressive in circulating the social media posts of Akhilesh Yadav, the BJP leaders were comparatively less enthusiastic in defending CM Adityanath and the BJP,” said a BJP insider who attended the workshop.

“It was pointed out by our leaders from the dais that party MLAs were posting messages to wish birthdays to their near-and-dear ones but not bothering to counter the SP’s allegations against the CM and the BJP on various political issues,” said the source.

Sangh meeting

RSS’s Arun Kumar had chaired a meeting of the Sangh Parivar in Sultanpur on October 5. At the meeting, BJP leader Govind Singh Chauhan from Amethi, who is also the Kashi region head of RSS affiliate Vidya Bharti, asked how workers could trust local leaders if they could not “ensure justice at police stations and government offices”.

Chauhan also asked why “party hoppers” wield more influence in the belt and alleged that Opposition workers were “getting more respect at government offices”. “Some other participants in the meeting also suggested reforms in the functioning of the organisation. I said BJP workers should not be disregarded and that bureaucracy’s working style should be improved,” he told The Indian Express.

BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, Pankaj Chaudhary, state BJP general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh, and leaders from different Sangh affiliates from the Kashi and Gorakhpur regions were present at the meeting.

UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said he had no information as he was not present at the meetings, while the BJP central leadership did not respond to queries.

After the BJP faced a setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in UP, several party leaders listed “disappointment among party workers because of neglect” by the administration among the major factors for its poor performance. The BJP’s tally had plunged from 62 to 33 of the state’s 80 seats, while the SP won 37 seats, its best-ever performance in the parliamentary polls.