BL Santhosh, Radha Mohan begin UP visit, hold talks with RSS leaders

LUCKNOW: The UP BJP went into a huddle on Monday as party national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and vice-president and UP in charge Radha Mohan Singh, turned to the RSS leadership in UP before holding a high-level core committee meeting with chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Soon after reaching Lucknow, the two leaders, along with UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, headed straight to the office of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Niralanagar.
While the agenda of their meeting with RSS functionaries was kept under wraps, the development generated much curiosity given the Sangh’s keenness to ramp up activities in coordination with the BJP ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections.
It is learnt that Santhosh, himself a close affiliate of RSS, took feedback from Sangh leaders on the functioning of the government and the loopholes which need to be plugged. Sources said some RSS leaders pitched for better coordination with the state government to consolidate BJP’s position.
RSS has been lending support to the Yogi Adityanath government in carrying out relief operations for people hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Later, UP BJP leaders participated in the core committee meeting with the CM at his official residence. While there was no official word on what transpired in the meeting, sources claimed that discussions were held on the promises fulfilled by the party vis-a-vis its ‘Sankalp Patra’ (party manifesto of 2017) and the forthcoming visits by senior BJP leaders, including party president JP Nadda, in the coming months.
The developments gain significance in the backdrop of Adityanath's recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda, amid speculations about the central leadership’s plans to effect changes in UP government.
Earlier, speculations were rife that PM Modi’s close aide and former bureaucrat Arvind Kumar Sharma would be accommodated in the Yogi cabinet and given a plum portfolio. However, all rumours were laid to rest last week when the BJP accommodated Sharma in its UP unit as vice-president.
The efforts of the Yogi government in tackling the pandemic recently received support from top leadership, which was seen as a pointer to BJP plans of projecting Yogi’s leadership. This came amid claims by some UP BJP leaders that the party’s central leadership would decide the face for the assembly elections.
The visit of Santhosh and Singh comes almost 15 days after the two met PM Modi and JP Nadda on June 5 to discuss the feedback they collected from UP BJP leaders and ministers during their three-day visit to the state from May 31 to June 2. Their visit was also an exercise to pass on the directives of the national leadership to the state unit before setting the organisational machinery in motion to take on the opposition.