Cool Breeze: Lohia vs Modi’s Adarsh

BJP MPs from Uttar Pradesh are having a tough time implementing the PMs call for developing one Adarsh village in their constituency under the Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana, because most of the state’s development funds are directed by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav towards the SP’s own pet project of developing Lohia villages, i.e. developing the most backward villages under the Ram Manohar Lohia Samagra Gram Vikas Yojana. In keeping with the SP’s vote bank, the villages with the maximum presence of Muslims or Yadavs have been identified for this scheme. This leaves the BJP MPs from the state (if you recall the BJP swept the state leaving aside a handful of seats for the Gandhi and MSY bastions) with only the MPLADS to play around with if they want to develop the PM’s vision of Adarsh villages.

The BJP, it seems, has decided not to project a CM face in the state elections in Uttar Pradesh slated for early next year. According to sources, the party leadership has realised that it has only two leaders who have a pan Uttar Pradesh recognition, Yogi Adityanath and Varun Gandhi, but their appeal pales when pitted against state stalwarts Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav. Hence it has decided to divide the state into segments and appoint one leader from the area in charge of delivering that segment. The leader with the maximum success rate will then become the face of the party in the cow belt.

At least four union ministers need to get re-elected soon if they want to hold on to their ministerial berths, for their Rajya Sabha terms are due to expire. These are Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Venkaiah Naidu and Mukhtar Abhas Naqvi. But it seems as if Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have ensured their re-election. Venkaiah, it seems, would be re-elected from Karnataka, Naqvi from Uttar Padesh, Goyal from Maharashtra and Sitharaman from Andhra Pradesh with TDP support.