Several Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Uttar Pradesh are angry with the leadership for preferring to field ‘turncoats’ in the upcoming Assembly polls ignoring dedicated workers who have gave their sweat and blood to the party.
In the last 48 hours, these disgruntled workers have been staging protests, burning effigies of leaders and staging road blocks across the state, particularly in the eastern parts.
The anger is so pronounced that on Thursday, January 26, angry workers burnt the effigy of BJP MP Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur, something previously unheard of as Yogi holds enormous sway in Gorakhpur.
He is the Mahant of Gorakhnath temple and has been representing Gorakhpur in the lok Sabha since 1998. Adityanath’s wish is considered a command in the area and his diktat runs deep in eastern UP, through his frontal organisation Hindu Yuva Vahini.
Despite Adityanath’s massive influence in the region, hundreds of BJP workers gathered at Golghar in central Gorakhpur, and raised slogans against the Yogi and the BJP brass for giving tickets to ‘turncoats’.
The protests are not limited to Gorakhpur. In Deoria, BJP workers burnt the effigy of Union Micro Small and Medium Enterprises minister Kalraj Mishra alleging discrimination in ticket distribution. Mishra, who is the Brahmin face of the party, is the MP from Deoria. Party workers also torched an effigy of another Union Minister and local MP Manoj Sinha in Ghazipur.
BJP workers also gheraoed the Mini PMO in Varanasi for rejecting seven-time MlA from Varanasi Shyamdev Roy Choudhuri, also called Dada. Even Roy Choudhury sought to know as to why he was denied a ticket.
“If the leadership feels I am 75 and cannot be given ticket, then why was a sitting legislator, who is 77 years old, fielded IJ At least the party should have taken me into confidence before making this decision,” he said, referring to Satya Prakash Agarwal, a sitting MlA from Meerut Cantt.