BJP’s BL Santhosh, Radha Mohan Singh to hold review meetings again in Uttar Pradesh

BJP’s national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh will be in Lucknow on a two-day visit from Monday to review the party’s organisational programmes and its preparations for the upcoming zilla panchayat chairpersons’ elections and, most importantly, get the state unit to speak as a “united house”, people in know of the matter told ET. They will also decide the course of the morchas announced on Saturday and plan the upcoming visits of national leaders to UP. This is their second visit this month as the party is preparing for the crucial assembly polls next year.

According to a senior party functionary, leaders of the party in the state have been subtly advised not to speak out of turn, and not to cast doubts on each other or the leadership that can make the party look defensive about its work.

UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya had recently said that the national leadership will decide who will lead the UP polls. However, on Saturday, defence minister Rajnath Singh, had said that CM Yogi Adityanath’s commitment to the state was “unquestionable”, quashing the criticism levelled at the BJP government over its handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Santhosh and Singh are expected to meet party leaders like they did last time, and conduct a follow-up of the work assigned to them a few days ago. They are expected to fine-tune the party’s strategy for the July 3 zilla panchayat chairpersons’ elections. The BJP is particularly keen on putting up a good performance in these elections as, in the panchayat elections held in April, Samajwadi Party had upset the BJP by bagging 779 zilla panchayat wards.