Work as team for 2019, target over 50% vote share: Amit Shah to UP BJP, allies
LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh must overcome their differences and correct any perception that the ruling party is a divided house or that it does not get along with its regional partners – BJP president Amit Shah gave this clear message to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the party’s state unit in a nine-hour long visit to Lucknow on Wednesday.
Adityanath will now hold consultations every 15 days with leaders of Apna Dal and SBSP, the BJP allies in UP, and ensure officials pay heed to complaints from elected representatives of the two parties in the state, people aware of the matter told ET.
At a time when the rival camp of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party is showing increasing cohesiveness after the two parties joined hands, Shah questioned why the UP unit of the BJP made headlines for reasons such as upset allies and its five Dalit MPs speaking up against the party.
Shah met Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel and SBSP’s Om Prakash Rajbhar separately to listen to their concerns, including Rajbhar’s demand for division of the 27%quota of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for jobs.
With Dalits increasingly protesting against the BJP, Shah impressed upon the party unit and the two allies, which count the OBCs as their main supporters, to counter the SP-BSP coalition and prepare the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for a “collective victory” in the 2019 general election.
“Amit Shah spoke of a target of over 50% vote share and 73-plus seats for NDA in 2019 in UP, for which the campaign will now start. UP is the centre of national politics,” deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya told ET.
Adityanath will now hold consultations every 15 days with leaders of Apna Dal and SBSP, the BJP allies in UP, and ensure officials pay heed to complaints from elected representatives of the two parties in the state, people aware of the matter told ET.
At a time when the rival camp of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party is showing increasing cohesiveness after the two parties joined hands, Shah questioned why the UP unit of the BJP made headlines for reasons such as upset allies and its five Dalit MPs speaking up against the party.
Shah met Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel and SBSP’s Om Prakash Rajbhar separately to listen to their concerns, including Rajbhar’s demand for division of the 27%quota of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for jobs.
With Dalits increasingly protesting against the BJP, Shah impressed upon the party unit and the two allies, which count the OBCs as their main supporters, to counter the SP-BSP coalition and prepare the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for a “collective victory” in the 2019 general election.
“Amit Shah spoke of a target of over 50% vote share and 73-plus seats for NDA in 2019 in UP, for which the campaign will now start. UP is the centre of national politics,” deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya told ET.