Amid signs of dissent in Uttar Pradesh following the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken direct control of preparations for 10 Assembly bypolls. These bypolls are necessary after their MLAs were elected to Parliament.

Although the election dates have not been announced and a detailed plan for these 10 seats is yet to be prepared, the CM has initiated the process by assigning responsibilities to ministers. They have been instructed to camp in their assigned Assembly constituencies, address public grievances, and strengthen booth management.

During a meeting at the CM’s residence in Lucknow on Wednesday, Deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were notably absent. Senior BJP organizational leaders were also missing. Some BJP leaders explained that until the election dates are announced, the primary focus is on government work to resolve public issues, which is why only ministers attended the meeting.

“The government is doing its job. Once the bypoll dates are announced, the sangathan (party organization) will decide who will do what,” said a senior BJP leader, emphasizing the importance of resolving public grievances to counter negative publicity through proactive intervention.

Adityanath’s meeting with the ministers coincided with Maurya reiterating his statement that the party is bigger than the government. This comment, seen as a veiled critique of the CM’s reliance on bureaucracy, suggested that Adityanath was neglecting party workers.

Sources indicated that special emphasis was placed on the Milkipur constituency, previously held by the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Awadhesh Prasad. The SP is considering fielding Prasad’s son, Ajit, for this seat. Winning Milkipur is viewed as crucial for the BJP to mitigate the damage caused by losing Faizabad in the Lok Sabha polls. Adityanath has tasked Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi and MoS for Health Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh with overseeing this constituency.

Government insiders noted that responsibilities were also assigned to BJP’s alliance partners, the NISHAD Party and Apna Dal (Soneylal). NISHAD Party chief and state minister Sanjay Nishad recently raised concerns about the misuse of bulldozers against the poor. Apna Dal (S) leader Anupriya Patel’s husband, Ashish Singh Patel, a minister in the Adityanath government, was present at the meeting. Anupriya Patel, a Union MoS, previously wrote to the CM expressing concerns that reserved seats for SCs, STs, and OBCs were becoming unreserved during the recruitment process.

Of the 10 Assembly seats requiring bypolls, five are held by the SP, three by the BJP, one by the NISHAD Party, and one by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The SP won Sisamau, Katehri, Kundarki, Milkipur, and Karhal in the 2022 Assembly polls. The BJP currently holds Khair, Phulpur, and Ghaziabad. The NISHAD Party, which won Manjhwah, now seeks to retain the seat after its MLA was elected to Parliament on a BJP ticket. The RLD holds the Meerapur seat in Muzaffarnagar.