Repackaging Uttar Pradesh: PM's favourite Babu enters politics

The political importance of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot be doubted. As a Hindutva mascot he is next only to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in terms of his popularity with the flock. With his saffron robes marking the marriage of religion and politics – the merger of the Church and the State that Hindutva ideologues so desire – his persona remains unmatched in the BJP. 

PM Narendra Modi

Adityanath’s rise heralded a qualitatively new stage of Hindutva’s unabashed championing of majoritarian ideology. However his governance record may be a drag on the party as the state inches toward the next legislative assembly elections due in February-March 2022. Neither the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) nor the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been able to improve governance in UP so far. 

Even though the BJP is more comfortably placed than its political adversaries, the party is acutely conscious that it must retain UP in the 2024 general election. The state sends 80 MPs to the 542 strong Lok Sabha. One-fifth of the BJP’s strength in the present parliament comes from UP. The role of India’s most populous state in government formation in Delhi is therefore crucial. The limitations of Yogi Adityanath’s leadership could impact not only the assembly elections but also the 2024 general election. 

This is perhaps why Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inducted a trusted bureaucrat into UP politics. Nothing else can explain the ‘voluntary retirement’ sought by Gujarat cadre 1988-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, Arvind Kumar Sharma who is from UP. Within 96 hours of being discharged from the government he joined the BJP saying, “Last night I was told to adopt the membership of the BJP.” The very next day he was fielded by the party for the Legislative Council elections. Speculation is rife that Sharma will be inducted into the state Cabinet with an important portfolio. 

Sharma is not the first bureaucrat to join the BJP. Prime Minister Modi’s penchant for relying on trusted bureaucrats to implement key programmes rather than delegating them to a party politician, is well known. Perhaps he recognises the dearth of administrative talent within his party. And perhaps bureaucrats, even if they are appointed ministers, are more likely to follow orders than challenge political decisions.

Sharma is a trusted officer who has worked with Prime Minister Modi for 20 years. He was in the Chief Minister’s Office in Gujarat from 2001 and one of the first officers inducted into the Prime Minister’s Office in 2014. He worked in the PMO till April 2020 when he was appointed Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. He still had 18 months to go before being persuaded to retire and join the BJP.

Sharma should not be seen as the PMO’s Trojan horse sent to undermine Adityanath. Rather, his smooth induction in UP suggests that the Chief Minister accepts his political debut. This is quite different from 2017 when Adityanath resisted all attempts at hand-holding by the PMO after being appointed Chief Minister of UP. It might be recalled that a senior officer of the PMO was dispatched in May 2017 to advise the new Chief Minister on governance and administration. However, Adityanath refused to see him and he had to return from Lucknow airport itself. Sharma is believed to have accompanied that senior PMO official. 

Now, there seems to be an increasing realisation in the BJP that for the party to be re-elected in UP, the Adityanath government will have to be made more palatable. Governance has to improve and the state must be repackaged as a development hub. The incumbent government has been unable to do much on the development front despite making all the right noises about creating employment. Even the dilution of labour laws during the pandemic did not attract multinationals trying to relocate from China. Unemployment in UP at 14.8%, is nearly double of the national average of 7.8% (December 2020 figures from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy). The state’s development indicators are uninspiring and it remains among the poorest states in the country.

UP’s image as Hindutva’s new laboratory has gone hand in hand with a worsening law and order situation. The Chief Minister holds the Home portfolio but appears to have little time for governance. Rumour is that the state’s top bureaucrats keep him engaged in long video conferences feeding an ambition to lead the nation in 2024.  Daily religious rituals lasting several hours also make the CM unavailable for consultations.

Perhaps the prime minister hopes the new inductee will fill this governance gap. Sharma has a reputation of being mild-mannered and low profile and will be no challenge to Adityanath. In any case, an aggressive politician can easily outmanouvre a lifelong bureaucrat. So the UP chief minister will in all likelihood accept Sharma for improving delivery systems and to give his government a pro-people gloss.

Prime Minister Modi will be repeating his winning election strategy of coupling Hindutva with populist schemes which directly impact the voter.

While Yogi Adityanath can go all out with his political agenda, Sharma will oversee efficient implementation of populist schemes. In his stint in the Gujarat CMO, Sharma is believed to have liaised with businesses and corporate houses desirous of investing in the state. In the PMO he was entrusted with the key departments of industry, urban development and infrastructure projects from 2014 to April 2020.

This experience could pave the way for corporate investments in UP. The Centre may also come up with a new “Mission UP” in the run up to the elections. Sharma would be in a sufficiently senior political position to operationalise it. 

One can speculate whether one year will be sufficient to repackage UP and the Adityanath government for the voters. But these moves show that unlike other parties which pause and rest on their laurels, the BJP never lets up the momentum. The party is pushing ahead of the competition in preparing for the UP election next year and for 2024 thereafter.

Twitter: @Bharatitis