Rumours rife, UP CM Yogi Adityanath may be removed post poll

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7

Uttar Pradesh continues to be a hotbed of speculations and rumours ahead of the high-stakes Assembly elections.

Amid the long-prevailing buzz surrounding the “underlying division” between the Centre (Modi-Shah) and the state leadership (largely Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath), a BJP leader has made a stunning claim that former bureaucrat and state BJP vice-president AK Sharma could be the next Chief Minister if the party is voted back to power in UP.

According to the former Ghosi Lok Sabha member Harinarayan Rajbhar, Sharma (who was said to have been “handpicked” by the Prime Minister to set things right during the second wave of the Covid pandemic) could be the next Uttar Pradesh CM.

The rumour of the “differences” between the state and the central leadership have been doing the rounds ever since Sharma was sent to the state.

Referring to the abrupt change of the Chief Secretary, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said the “real battle in UP” was between the BJP at the centre and the BJP in Lucknow. Yadav also claimed the posting was a “revenge” of sorts by the Centre for not making AK Sharma the Deputy CM.

The buzz became stronger after UP Law Minister Brajesh Pathak was included in the key state election committee announced earlier this week.

Though the list has Adityanath, Deputy CMs Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, much is being read into Pathak finding a place in it.

Intra-party tussle

• State BJP vice-president AK Sharma could be the next Chief Minister if the party is voted back to power in UP
• Sharma was said to have been ‘handpicked’ by the PM to set things right during the second wave of Covid in UP
• SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has said the real battle in UP is between the BJP at the Centre and the BJP in Lucknow