Uttar Pradesh: Toe The Line, Bypoll Prep, Or...? What Deputy CM Maurya's Meet With The BJP Chief Might Mean

Uttar Pradesh (UP) Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary met the party national president Jagat Prakash Nadda in New Delhi on 16 July.

This has sparked speculations, especially due to Maurya's recent power posturing against UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Here are three possibilities for what this meeting may have been about:

1. Preparation For Bypolls

UP is set to have bypolls for 10 assembly seats. Nine seats were vacated due to the election of incumbent members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) to the Lok Sabha and one was vacated due to the conviction of a Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA.

Most media portals reported that Nadda had called Maurya and Chaudhary to discuss preparations for the assembly bypolls, as the BJP is cautious after the recent Lok Sabha losses.

The BJP could win only 33 seats, down from 62 in 2019, while its main rival, SP, won 37 seats, up from five. It now wants to compensate for this loss by winning all 10 assembly seats and, in the process, build momentum for the 2027 assembly election.

2. Maurya Is Once Against Asserting Power

Many political observers believe the meeting was more than a normal poll preparation meeting. After all, this was Maurya's second meeting with Nadda in three days, after the UP BJP Karyasamiti meeting this past Sunday.

Moreover, since Nadda met Maurya and Chaudhary separately, observers speculate that instead of discussing bypolls, Maurya might have placed some demands before Nadda.

While what Marya wants is as yet unclear, he might be propping himself up as a power centre in UP politics, especially since the Lok Sabha election results came out on 4 June.

For over a month, he has been meeting leaders, especially those dissatisfied with Chief Minister Adityanath or at least holding a grudge against him. (Read here for more.)

This casts us back to the 2017 UP assembly election when Maurya wanted to become chief minister. He was the state BJP president at the time and the party received a majority under his leadership.

However, Adityanath was appointed as chief minister and Maurya as his deputy. The arrangement continued after the 2022 assembly election despite Maurya losing in Sirathu of his home district Kaushambi.

3. BJP Schools Maurya

While Maurya posts photos with all the leaders he meets throughout the day on X, he has not posted a photo after meeting Nadda. This has sparked speculations that the meeting did not go as Maurya would have liked.

Some political observers speculate that Nadda might have cautioned Maurya against his power posturing and undermining of Adityanath's position, asking him instead to toe the UP Chief Minister's line.

Keeping Adityanath as the sole authority in UP is necessary not only for the current BJP government in the state, but also for the future of the party's electoral politics, as there is no leader more popular than him.

The party has already given the responsibility of UP assembly bypolls to Adityanath, and he has further delegated it to his ministers and has been continuously monitoring their work through meetings.

In such a scenario, the BJP will most likely contest the 2027 assembly election under Adityanath's leadership. And for the party to succeed, it needs to keep its cadre united.

Thus, Maurya might have been asked not to deviate from Adityanath's line. However, one must admit that whatever power politics Maurya has played, he has never gone rogue against the party.

Which of the three possibilities is closest to the truth will be known in a few days depending on how Maurya responds to his meeting with Nadda.