Yogi Adityanath wins RSS support to lead BJP into 2019 Lok Sabha poll in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: Even after losing four back to back bypolls and amidst an opposition buzz of under-performance, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's style of governance got the endorsement from Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) which supposedly backed him and projected him as the one to hold BJP's fort in UP during Lok Sabha election next year.

CM Yogi had day-long deliberations with Sangh's top brass, including chief Mohan Bhagwat and his deputy Bhaiyya Ji Joshi in Delhi on Tuesday.

As per the highly placed sources of the BJP, though the Sangh Parivar threw its weight behind UP CM, top Sangh functionaries felt that the benefits of the welfare schemes and development projects were yet to reach the beneficiaries and that the implementation should be given a bit more impetus.

Besides presenting a broader perspective of the performance of his 15-month government, the CM was believed to have discussed with Sangh leaders the first imminent reshuffle of his cabinet during which some of the faces may be dropped and a few new ones may be inducted.

The Yogi government has 47 ministers and 13 more could be inducted.

Moreover, a strategic organisational rejig in the state to balance caste equations also came up for discussion.

The sources said that despite endorsing the way Yogi tackled farmers and Dalit issues, the Sangh top brass issued a word of caution for the ministers and the party functionaries to refrain from issuing controversial statements in public to damage party's image.

Leaders were concerned about the jibes taken by a number of party MPs, allies and functionaries in the recent past over Dalit atrocities as it gave the opposition an opportunity to spread canard about not only the state but the central government as well projecting both as anti-Dalit.

Immediately after returning from Delhi, the CM flanked by his two deputies and organisational general secretary Sunil Bansal, drove to RSS state headquarters in Lucknow to pick the threads with RSS Sahkaryawah (national joint secretary) Dattatreya Hosabole.

The CM was suggested at the meeting to make the forthcoming Kumbh a pivot for development activities and project it in a big way in villages and town at least within 60 km radius.

In Lucknow meeting, while the Sangh activists gave a feedback of the prevailing administrative and political scenario at grass root level and also people's perception about state government, RSS exhorted all its affiliated outfits to draw a common roadmap for a well-coordinated strategy to dispel fear in the minds of people of some sections of society about BJP.

The pro-temple voices growing shriller in Ayodhya with both the seers and leaders like Ram Vilas Vedanti and disgruntled Pravin Togadia setting the deadline for temple construction was also discussed in the meeting, said the sources.