Yogi's tryst at ground zero

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Yogi's tryst at ground zero

Thursday, 27 May 2021 | Biswajeet Banerjee

Yogi's tryst at ground zero

The UP Chief Minister is working hard. Is it only COVID concern or politics, too?

On April 30, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath tested COVID negative and the very next day he was back in action. He went to review the construction of make-shift DRDO hospital at Awadh Shilp Gram in Lucknow. On May 5 he inaugurated the hospital, named after Atal Bihari Vajpayi. Since then, Yogi is on ground zero - visiting districts to take stock of the pandemic situation. In over three weeks since Yogi tested negative, he has assessed the situation in 55 districts of 14 divisions, roughly 70 percent of the state, by either visiting them or through virtual meetings. Uttar Pradesh has 75 districts.

He even went to Noida, considered a jinxed city for Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, and Saifai, the first non-Samajwadi Party Chief Minister to visit the stronghold of the Mulayam Singh Yadav family. There are many arguments floating around about Yogi's forays into villages. One section says that in April end there was a surge in fresh cases of corona and UP recorded maximum 38,000 cases per day. At that time Yogi tested positive for Covid-19. Though he was holding review meetings with the officials virtually, the impact of the meeting was missing. Questions were raised by that section whether Yogi was competent enough to handle the disaster of this magnitude.

Another section says that almost at the same time a senior member of Niti Ayog briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Uttar Pradesh was heading for a disaster and if corrective steps are not taken the state would be the biggest hotspot.

That was the time when pictures of cremation grounds, wailing relatives outside hospitals and people clamouring for oxygen and hospital beds were making headlines. Both Modi and Yogi became focus of such criticism and their popularity graphs started dipping. Political pundits prophesied Yogi might even be replaced .No name was suggested, but covertly it was believed that a Thakur would replace a Thakur (Yogi is Thakur by caste).

It is in this scenario that Yogi's personal tours become key to understanding his strategy.Infrastructure in districts was strengthened.Oxygen tankers started arriving in a matter of days. The covid protocol was restored and the Integrated Covid Command Centres strengthened. But this raises one more question: Is Yogi a one-man army? Where are his ministers? Both Deputy Chief Ministers - Dr Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya -were missing from the scene. Initially, Dr Sharma was down with Covid and has now recuperated.The ministers claim they received no directives from the CM's Office. They kept track of things by checking with District Magistrates, they said.

Lack of co-ordination between the party and the government was another grey area. Last week, a picture went viral of a notice of BJP president of Bahraich outside his office asking workers not to come to him with requests as "district officials" do not listen to him. The situation has now changed. Once Yogi began his forays into the districts, results have started trickling in. The party organization has started its campaign of distributing ration, medicine or other materials among the people.  The ministers too have started coming out of their shells and have started interacting with the masses. There is a sense of optimism in the party and the government now that things are claimed to be turning for the better. There is a belief that the dark days are over and better days are round the corner.

(The writer is Executive Director, News, The Pioneer, Lucknow. The views expressed are personal.)

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