What could have been a path-breaking meeting before the crucial bye-elections in the Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state executive meeting in Vrindavan was reduced to just a formality as two top leaders of the party, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, preferred to skip it. The party state executive, however, decided to launch an agitation against the anti-people policies of the Samajwadi Party Government.
Union Home Minister and former president of the party, Rajnath Singh, was to conclude the meet on Sunday but he did not turn up, forcing BJP national general secretary Ramlal to substitute him. Earlier, BJP president Amit Shah had also not come to inaugurate the meeting. Amidst the chaos that prevailed in the meeting, the BJP state executive passed a political resolution in which it decried the breakdown of law and order and the Samajwadi Party Government’s appeasement policy, which, it said, was driving a wedge between two communities.
“The Samajwadi Party Government has failed on all counts. Cases of harassment of women are on the rise and the police are acting against criminals depending on the caste and religion to which they belong,” the political resolution said.“It is a matter of concern that people of one religious group are found to be involved in crimes, raising a big question on the pattern of such crimes,” it added. The BJP cleverly ignored the word ‘love jihad’ in its political resolution and instead talked about a particular community. The party was on the back foot on the ‘love jihad’ issue and claimed that it was not in their agenda. The party attacked the Samajwadi Party in its political resolution but was silent on the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress, making it clear that it considered only the SP as its political rival in the state.
The party also spoke about the Japanese encephalitis which is taking lives in eastern Uttar Pradesh on a regular basis. It said the education system was in a shambles and expressed concern that industries had started moving out of the state because of poor law and order. In its agricultural resolution, the party said that the Government’s policies were anti-farmer. It said the farmers were neither getting fertilisers nor seeds and at many places the growers were forced to commit suicide because they were not getting good price for their crop.
There was so much confusion in the 2-day meet that the state unit of the party did not invite former state presidents, leaders of the party in Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad. Former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and senior party leader Om Prakash Singh were also missing in this meet.Sources said that senior leaders like Surya Pratap Shahi and Vinay Katiyar were not allowed to speak. “This meeting was just a formality. The absence of Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh spoiled the show,” a senior party leader said. Both the senior leaders were unable to participate in the meet due to their pre-occupation in New Delhi. Some BJP state leaders claimed that both Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh had not confirmed their participation in the Vrindavan meet but the state unit jumped the gun.