Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president J P Nadda on Friday, following a two-day visit to Delhi that hit the headlines and fueled rumours of a rupture with the Centre. Insiders say that the party has made it point very clear to Yogi’s opposition that the chief minister would continue to be the current party’s image in the upcoming Assembly elections. But, in a substantial change, Shah will be back in the same position, where he turned the party’s prospects around before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Yogi’s discussion with Modi lasted about an hour, and he spent about 90 minutes with Nadda. Following these high-profile conversations, however, there was no media engagement or press conference.
After Yogi’s departure, the BJP’s top leaders got together, signaling that some significant changes seem to be on the way in the state to mitigate any harm to the party’s reputation caused by the Yogi government’s approach to the Covid-19 situation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP Chief J.P. Nadda on Friday amid speculation about a cabinet meeting, which the PM has not conducted since establishing the administration for the second time in May 2019. As rumours spread of a change in the Union Cabinet and a similar reshuffle in UP, Amit Shah, and J.P. Nadda conferred with Modi. Both changes will be made in light of the next state elections in 2022, which will take place in five states: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh.
The topmost BJP leaders gathered at the prime minister’s residence a day after Shah met with party allies from Uttar Pradesh, notably Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel, who served as a minister during the first Modi cabinet but was not re-instated in the second.
According to the sources, in the coming days, Modi will speak to Union ministers in groups, reflecting a feeling of concern in the saffron party, which is still dealing from its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections.
