The state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party is set to take action against ministers and legislators in whose constituencies the party did not perform as expected and the non-performing ministers could be replaced by those who excelled.
A senior BJP leader told The Pioneer in Lucknow on Wednesday that the Lok Sabha election results would be under scrutiny because of the importance attached by party’s brass to Uttar Pradesh. Preparations were made to the minutest of details and a team of party workers worked as a well-oiled machine for months.
“We are still confident of winning 74 seats and results notwithstanding, the whole thing will be scrutinised. Targets were given to legislators and we will see whether the same were achieved as per party’s expectation,” the leader said.
Majority of exit polls have predicted that the BJP would lose some seats in UP but win in the excess of 50. The internal survey of BJP, however, said that the party would win 67 of the 78 seats contested, as two seats were left for its ally Apna Dal.
In 2014 elections, the BJP and its ally won 73 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The BJP is taking the results seriously as over a dozen Union and UP ministers contested the elections from UP. The main contenders were Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Union Minister of Social Justice Menaka Gandhi from Sultanpur, Union minister Sadhavi Niranan Jyoti from Fatehpur, Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha from Ghazipur, Union minister Gen (Retd) VK Singh from Ghaziabad, Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Budh Nagar, Union minister Santosh Gangwar from Bareilly, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani from Amethi and Sanjiv Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar.
Among ministers in the Yogi government, Tourism minister and MLA from Lucknow Cantt Rita Bahuguna Joshi contested the Allahabad seat while Khadi and Gramodyog Minister Satyadev Pachauri was in the fray from Kanpur, replacing Murli Manohar Joshi.
Besides, Animal Husbandry Minister SPS Baghel contested from Agra and Co-operative minister Mukut Bihari Verma tried his luck from Ambedkar Nagar. Even state BJP president Mahendra Pandey contested from Chandauli.
“When so many ministers and dignitaries were in the fray, we need to assess the performance of our leaders on how they fared,” the BJP leader said, and hinted that Yogi could go for a Cabinet reshuffle to replace the non-performing ministers with those who came out with flying colours.
Earlier, at a poll rally in Mahoba, the Chief Minister had made it clear that he would take action against officials after elections and was dissatisfied over the faulty delivery system, particularly in the Bundelkhand region.
