Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – a senior leader and prominent face of the BJP – and Mohan Bhagwat, boss of ruling party’s ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are expected to meet this afternoon in Gorakhpur, which is the latter’s Assembly bastion.
The meeting – sources call it a “courtesy meet” as Mr Bhagwat is in the Chief Minister’s constituency for an unrelated event, is to take place either between 2 and 4 pm or after the latter’s visit to the Gorakhnath Temple at 4.15 pm. Whenever it does happen, however, it will take place amid hushed talk of a rift between party and mentor, which has been firmly denied by both camps. The Adityanath-Bhagwat meeting will also take place as reports circulate of a split within the BJP itself, over poor election results.
The optics of Mohan Bhagwat meeting Yogi Adityanath are significant after the former’s speech this week in Nagpur; Mr Bhagwat seemed to express displeasure at the way the BJP (though he did not name the party) conducted its election campaign. He also said a “true sevak should serve without arrogance”, a remark many saw as directed at a top BJP leader, possibly even Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
READ | “Competition, Not War”: RSS Boss Bhagwat On Election, Parliament
If the RSS chief’s comment was veiled, his colleague Indresh Kumar’s was not; he slammed the “party which did bhakti of Lord Ram (a reference to building the Ram Temple in UP’s Ayodhya, which was expected to seal a landslide win for the party) for its “arrogance”.
The RSS moved quickly to dispel talk of a split with its political unit; sources said the message was just a pick-me-up for the BJP’s central leadership and claimed “there was not much difference” to talks he gave after wins in 2014 and 2019. The “arrogance” remark was not directed at Mr Modi, sources said.
READ | “Speculation”: RSS Sources On ‘Rift’ With BJP After Chief’s Remarks
And as for Indresh Kumar’s jab, RSS sources distanced the organisation from the comments and sought to flip it, declaring Lord Ram “stopped those (the Congress-led INDIA bloc) who became arrogant” at 241.
READ | After Uproar Over “Arrogant” Dig At BJP, RSS Leader’s U-Turn
For the 2024 Lok Sabha election the BJP had set itself an ambitious target of 370 seats (400+ with allies) to form a third consecutive union government with a brute majority.
However, hobbled by a strong showing by the INDIA group, and pushback over policy issues, the party’s previously formidable election-winning machinery managed only 240 seats – 32 below the majority mark – and was forced to rely on ‘kingmakers’ Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu to complete its hat-trick.
The BJP’s decidedly sub-par showing was underlined by an abysmal result from UP, which the party has swept in every major election since 2014. The BJP won only 33 of the state’s 80 seats after amassing 71 in the 2014 poll and 62 in the 2019 exercise. Rivals Samajwadi Party – a member of the INDIA bloc – picked up 37, its best general election result, and the Congress claimed six, double its last two scores.
There has been speculation the BJP’s shocking UP showing was fueled as much by discontent among farmers still protesting for MSP, as by concerns over unemployment and the cost of living crisis.
The scale of the BJP’s UP defeat is underlined by the fact it also the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which includes Ayodhya and the party’s Ram Temple project.
The BJP’s abject results in other states too – like Bengal, where it lost six seats to rivals Trinamool, and Tamil Nadu, where it was routed for a second consecutive election.
The RSS is, however, to hold meetings to discuss the results, including claiming a first Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, a state that has traditionally and comprehensively rejected the BJP. The party won Thrissur thanks to actor-politician Suresh Gopi, who has since been made a junior Union Tourism Minister.
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