16

Dec

Electoral Rolls in U.P.: Yogi Drops a Bomb Shell

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A close-up of a person with glasses AI-generated content may be incorrect.The Modi-Shah’s strangulating control over the BJP seems to be facing a challenge from U. P Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. His claim that four crore voters are “missing” after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in his state is in total defiance of all that the top BJP leadership is saying in support of the Election Commission and against the Opposition’s campaign of votechori.

Speaking at an event in Lucknow on Monday, where Pankaj Chaudhary was officially anointed state BJP chief, Adityanath said the priority task for the new state BJP team under Pankaj Chaudhary was to get people enumerated. He said U.P. had 15.60 crore voters in the last election. The number now should have been 16 crore. But after SIR, the state has 12 crore now.

“Chaar crore ka gap missing hai… Yeh aapka virodhi nahi hai, ismein se 85 per cent aapka matdata hai.. (There is a gap of four crore missing voters. They are not your opponents, but 85% of them are your [BJP’s] voters.”)

Adityanath’s words spoken to party workers were no different to what Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and other Opposition leaders like former UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav have been stating for the last couple of months. His address,  therefore, looks like a confirmation that the Election Commission’s ongoing SIR exercise is fraudulent and is being undertaken to cheat the electorate’s mandate. In a way, Yogi has confirmed the charges made by the opposition against the Election Commission, which is acting at the command of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.   

Here it must be said that Yogi Adityanath was not the choice of either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or then BJP chief Amit Shah in 2017 when the BJP won a majority in the assembly election, as the two were backing Manoj Sinha, who is today the Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. Adityanath, who has had an independent identity, first as Mahant or the chief priest of the rich and powerful Gorakhnath Temple in Gorakhpur and also the founder of Hindu Yuva Vahini, had allied with the RSS to fulfil his political ambitions to lead the state and the country.

The article argues that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has openly challenged the Modi–Shah leadership within the BJP by alleging that nearly four crore voters are “missing” from the state’s electoral rolls after the Special Intensive Revision. His remarks echo opposition claims of vote manipulation and implicitly question the Election Commission’s credibility, contradicting the party’s official line.
Wednesday Wisdom
By Satish Misra
The piece situates this dispute within long-standing tensions between Yogi and the Modi–Shah duo, dating back to 2017 when he defied their preference for another chief minister. It portrays the BJP as increasingly centralised, with internal democracy eroded and key positions awarded based on loyalty rather than seniority or experience. The author suggests deep internal resentment, warns of a power struggle between Yogi and Amit Shah, and predicts an intense political showdown.

Then in 2017, Yogi refused to follow the Modi-Shah diktat and categorically stated that if he was not made the CM, then he would split the party and join hands with the opposition. His threat worked at that time as the RSS backed him, but he was reluctantly accepted, though tensions between him and the powerful duo have remained. Several attempts to dislodge him have been made, but Yogi, unlike former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, has refused to surrender.            

The Modi-Shah duo has been controlling every lever of power, be it in the government or the party, subjugating every institution to their will, which has created a suffocating environment within the party. Internal democracy within the party is long dead and buried, with the mentor guardian RSS’ abjectly surrendering to the mighty duo.

Another factor which has added the proverbial fuel to the fire is the way chief ministers are being appointed and party positions are being given to party leaders whose sole qualification is loyalty to the Modi-Shah duo rather than to the ideal of the party. There is tremendous unease and suffocation within the party.

While it is being officially said that chief ministers are picked or party positions are being given to workers who have put in hard work, the fact is that experience, seniority and standing in the party as well as society were the earlier criteria which mattered in the era before the two came to capture power in 2014. Appointment of 45-year-old Nitin Nabin as the working president of the BJP is a classic case which, though it is being projected as a big step of ushering in a generational change, in fact is an insult to scores of leaders who were in the race.  

Stranglehold of the Gujarat lobby over the party and the government is the topic of silent discussion in party circles, as an undercurrent of resentment and frustration runs deep, which party leaders confide but lack the courage to challenge or express their view openly.

Yogi Adityanath, who sees himself as the next prime minister of the country, is not a pushover and is a potential challenge to Amit Shah, who also thinks that he deserves to replace his boss.

In the ongoing dirty tug of war, the Modi-Shah duo is going to make every effort to topple Yogi from the chief ministerial chair, but from all accounts, the saffron-clad leader has reportedly dug his feet firmly and is ready to fight his battle.

My assessment, based on long years of political reporting of the BJP, is that the cards are favouring Yogi because Modi’s popularity is fast eroding and his charisma vanishing. Shah, who draws his hollow power from his boss, is on a weak wicket compared to Adityanath because, on his own, the Home Minister has neither the following nor respect. He is more feared than respected.     

The coming days are likely to see a political thriller unfolding with moves and counter moves made by Yogi and Modi-Shah on the political chessboard. (Dr Satish Misra is a senior journalist and a seasoned political analyst. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation).

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