Ending month-long speculations over the placement of the former bureaucrat and trusted aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AK Sharma has been appointed the vice-president of UP BJP. The former Gujarat cadre IAS officer was in the focus for the last several months over his possible induction into the Yogi Adityanath cabinet ahead of 2022 UP Assembly elections.
Sharma took to Twitter to thank the party leadership. He thanked the Central and state leadership of the BJP.
Sharma joined the BJP in January earlier this year after taking voluntary retirement from his service. Sharma is considered to be close to PM Modi and has worked with him in Gujarat. The announcement comes a day after UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh went to Delhi and met top leaders.
Singh announced the appointment of Sharma along with Archana Mishra and Amit Valmiki as secretaries (organisation) for Lucknow and Bulandshahr, respectively. The UP BJP president also announced that Pranshudutt Dwivedi will be the president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Gita Shakya president of UP Mahila Morcha, Kameshwar Singh president of Kisan Morcha, Narendra Kashyap president of Pichhda Varg Morcha, Kaushal Kishore president of SC Morcha and Kunwar Basit Ali president of Minority Morcha.
Meanwhile, BJP general secretary BL Santosh will be in Lucknow on June 21 and 22. It will be his second visit to Lucknow in a month, setting off speculations that something major could happen in UP politics.
The BJP is making hectic preparations ahead of the assembly polls to tide over the anti-incumbency among the voters due to “mismanagement” of the pandemic, leading to a large number of deaths.
Concerned over the UP Assembly elections, the BJP has held several rounds of deliberations since May. It is speculated that the visit of BL Santosh to Lucknow is part of the same political calculation. During his stay in Lucknow, Santosh is likely to meet Yogi’s cabinet colleagues and BJP office-bearers to prepare the strategic groundwork for the elections.