Gujarat home minister during 2002 riots is BJP’s UP in charge

LUCKNOW: BJP leader Goardhan Zadaphia, Gujarat’s home minister during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, was on Wednesday appointed party election in charge of UP for Lok Sabha elections. The party also appointed Dushyant Gautam and Narottam Mishra as co-in charge.
Zadaphia had rebelled against BJP and floated a political outfit, Maha Gujarat Janata Party during the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, when Modi was chief minister. He even contested against BJP’s Rajendra Singh Rana, but lost by 6000 votes. Zadapia also launched Sardar Patel Utkarsh Samiti to consolidate the influential Patidars. He, however, returned to the BJP fold, just before 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the saffron party stormed to power and Modi became PM.

Zadaphia’s appointment is being viewed by political experts as para-dropping of a hardliner in the UP poll cauldron amid Opposition criticism of BJP for rolling out a communal narrative ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Also, this comes six months after BJP vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan Om Mathur developed differences with the UP unit and stayed away from party affairs in UP. He, in fact, skipped the crucial state executive meeting in Meerut to chalk out the party strategy for the general elections.

BJP also appointed Dushyant Gautam, member of BJP’s national Scheduled Castes Morcha, as co-in charge. BJP sources see it as a move to consolidate Dalits even as SP and Mayawati-led BSP inch closer to cobbling up an alliance to take on the saffron party. Gautam is a Jatav, a Dalit sub-caste to which Mayawati belongs.

Narrottam Mishra too has made co-in charge. Mishra was cabinet minister in the previous Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh, which was wrested by Congress in the recent assembly poll. In 2017, Mishra was disqualified by Election Commission for filing wrong information on election expenditure during 2008 assembly elections and using paid news during his poll campaign.