Shah to craft strategy for UP poll amid Cabinet rejig buzz
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 21
Home Minister Amit Shah will craft a strategy for the high-stake elections to the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly scheduled next year, sources said following a meeting of the top central leadership in Delhi on Thursday, where Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too was in attendance.
Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda met Adityanath along with state president Swatantra Dev Singh and general secretary Sunil Bansal to discuss “poll preparedness, party’s upcoming programmes and public response to the Jan Ashirvad Yatra”. However, the meeting also regenerated the buzz regarding the expansion of the Adityanath Cabinet by “August-end”. A senior leader in the know of developments said the “expansion and appointments to the MLC and corporations (if at all) would be done after Raksha Bandhan by August-end”.
“Though the state unit “is not in favour of the expansion, given the acrimony it may create among those left out”, the central leadership appears to be in its favour and wants some prominent Brahmin and OBC faces included in the Adityanath Cabinet and vacant MLC posts to be filled, the sources added
The names of Jitin Prasada, Laxmikant Bajpai and AK Sharma, a confidante of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and some from the NDA allies like the Nishad Party and the Apna Dal are doing the rounds in this context.
