LUCKNOW: In yet another endorsement of CM Yogi Adityanath as BJP's spearhead in the forthcoming UP assembly elections, Union minister and party's UP election in charge Dharmendra Pradhan said that Yogi would be "the key leader" who will lead the party in the high-stake poll battle next year.
"We will bank on the popularity of PM Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath while contesting the forthcoming UP assembly elections under his leadership. Yogi ji is our key leader in UP," Pradhan declared. His statement was seen as a strong pointer to BJP's persistent reliance on the saffron mascot who is also projected a Hindutva icon by BJP's ideological fountain head, the RSS.
Pradhan's observation was also interpreted as being in sharp contrast to the remarks by some of the senior BJP leaders who have been insisting that the party's CM candidate will be formally decided only by the party high command.
UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh, too, maintained that the party would go to the hustings under the "able leadership" of CM Yogi. As a matter of fact, Pradhan, who has been camping in Lucknow for the past three days has been consistently exhorting the party functionaries to project various public welfare schemes of the Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath government as a potential tool to bind the electorate with the saffron camp.
Pradhan's endorsement of Yogi's leadership comes days after PM Modi lauded the UP government over management of Corona, besides maintaining a robust law and order situation and putting the state on a higher growth trajectory. Before that, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, who happens to be an RSS affiliate, had extolled the Yogi government for managing Corona and accelerating the vaccination process in the country's most populated state.
The BJP has been projecting Yogi on a national political landscape since the time he took over the reins of UP in 2017. The head of Goraksha Peeth has been campaigning for the party in virtually all assembly elections in different states.
