BJP national vice-president and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh on Sunday met Governor Anandiben Patel and Assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit in Lucknow. Dismissing speculations over an imminent cabinet reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh’s Yogi Adityanath government, Singh described the meeting as a “personal” one.
“It was a courtesy call as I could not meet the Governor since becoming the state in-charge. When she was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, I was the Agriculture Minister at the Center. But I could not meet her for the last six months, so I went to meet her today. It was a personal meeting,” he told media on being asked about the reason behind today’s meeting.
Asked about the possibility of a reshuffle in Uttar Pradesh, he said, “There is no such case. The Uttar Pradesh government and the organisation are moving very strongly. It is the most popular government in the country. Now a courtesy meeting is also to be held with the Speaker of the Assembly.”
After the meeting Singh, Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker Dikshit said, “Radha Mohan ji is an old friend and he wanted to meet me so he came over. We spoke on issues related to literature and ancient history.”
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are scheduled to be held in 2022. In such a situation, speculations were rife that a cabinet reshuffle in the state would be possible and AK Sharma, who became MLC, could be given some major responsibilities in the cabinet. Although the BJP officials are denying this possibility, but rumours about the same have been still travelling through political circles.
As per the law, only the Chief Minister can meet the Governor for the expansion or consultation of the cabinet reshuffle in any state. The Chief Minister asks the Governor for time for discussion and submits the list of people proposed on his behalf. On which the Governor usually gives consent.
Meanwhile, sources had told CNN-News18 that the BJP, which has begun working on its poll strategy ahead of the 2022 elections in UP, will do a strength and weakness analysis and also prepare individual report cards of the leaders.
Performance will be the biggest benchmark for getting a BJP ticket, sources said, adding that the party’s top leadership is in favour of individual surveys of MLAs.
As was the case in West Bengal, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda will make monthly visits to the big poll bound state to check the poll preparedness.
Speculations of a possible change of guard were further fueled on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda did not publicly wish Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on his birthday. However, sources said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Home Minister’s Office (HMO) and Nadda called Adityanath instead of posting on social media sites.
Some netizens and journalists observed that there is no birthday greetings for the UP chief minister from the party’s top brass and questioned if all was well between Adityanath and the central leadership.
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