UP bypoll result fallout: Yogi miffed with babus, mass transfers in offing

In the backdrop of humbling defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypoll, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday huddled himself with top officials over their alleged failure to forge ‘people connect’ with government policies.

According to sources, Adityanath is miffed with the functioning of the administrative machinery, especially of the CM’s Office and key departments dealing directly with people.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers had on several occasions conveyed to the state party leadership about the apathetic attitude of district administrative officials towards people’s grievances. Their common refrain being that district-level officials had failed to translate government policies on the ground on the pretext of adhering to rules, which had nonetheless been sowing disenchantment among people.

Adityanath cancelled his engagements for Thursday and summoned top bureaucrats for a dressing down in failure to cultivate positive image of the government, which had manifested in adverse poll results in the key constituencies. He was scheduled to visit Gonda district for a series of official programmes.

Interestingly, the crushing defeat in Gorakhpur, the traditional pocket borough of Adityanath and Phulphur, which the BJP had won for the first time in 2014 Lok Sabha poll, has come at a time when the government was gearing up to celebrate the first year in office on March 19.

Last year, Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya had resigned from the Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies respectively after they were elected to Vidhan Parishad.

Sources said the Adityanath government is also gearing up for large-scale transfer of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials to send a terse message to bureaucracy against lethargy and apathy towards government roadmap.

He is likely to hold a meeting with party officials also over the forthcoming biennial Rajya Sabha poll to fill 10 seats from UP. On the basis of 325 Vidhan Sabha members, the BJP and allies can elect 8 Rajya Sabha members. It takes 37 votes to elect a Rajya Sabha member, which would leave 29 spare votes with BJP and allies after voting for 8 candidates.

Earlier, the BJP had nominated total 11 candidates, including union finance minister Arun Jaitley, for the Rajya Sabha election from UP, three more than it can safely elect with a view to effecting split in opposition and attracting their votes.

However, on the last day of withdrawing nomination today, two additional Rajya Sabha candidates viz. Vidyasagar Sonkar and Salil Vishnoi withdrew their candidature, since after the bypoll defeat yesterday, the saffron party wants to avoid further embarrassment.

Adityanath had yesterday attributed defeat to overconfidence and low voting percentages at both the constituencies. Besides, the pre-poll alliance of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) just before the polling disturbed the poll math of BJP, which had been relying on the division of dalit and backward votes between the two parties.

In Gorakhpur, SP candidate Pravin Nishad defeated BJP candidate Upendra Shukla by almost 22,000 votes, while in Phulpur, SP nominee Nagendra Singh Patel trumped BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel by 59,000 votes.