Nalin Verma 
The long-standing rivalry between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is now out in the open. While the Prime Minister’s loyalists employ tact, guile, and camouflage to elbow out the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, the saffron-clad Mahant of the Gorakhnath shrine—known for his assertiveness and radical Hindutva—aims to thwart their gambit.
And, the ‘pawn’ who harbours the ambition to become ‘badshah’ on the political chessboard is Keshav Prasad Maurya. Adityanath had edged out Maurya in 2017 to emerge as the victor in the race for the Chief Minister’s post.
Maurya, a leader of opposition in the preceding assembly (2012-17), considered his elevation as the CM to be a “natural process” when the Bharatiya Janata Party had secured a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh. But Adityanath, who was then the MP from Gorakhpur, struck, smashing Maruya’s dreams.
Maurya was shocked at failing to achieve his cherished dream. In the dramatic turn of events, he landed in a hospital. But Adityanath, shrugging of his party high command’s ‘reluctance’ became Chief Minister. Maurya had to content himself as a deputy to Adityanath.
Now, with the BJP led alliance reduced to 37 seats against the 43 of the Samajvadi Party-Congress combine, the swords are out in the Hindutva party. Maurya, who has been sulking for long with the CM “cold-shouldering” him, has gone public in raising his objections at Adityanath’s style of functioning.
Maurya is believed to have the backing of his high command which, too, was waiting for an opportune moment to strike at the monk-cum-CM.
It’s evident from the fact that the party’s parliamentary committee has indirectly held Adityanth responsible for the BJP’s poor show in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP’s allies have concurred with the parliamentary committee’s investigations.
It’s widely believed in the BJP circles that the Union home minister, Amit Shah doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Adityanath with the latter emerging as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “alternative” in the electorally significant state.
On the other hand, Adityanath doesn’t look like throwing in the towel against the Modi-Shah combine. He has described “overconfidence” as the reason for the BJP’s defeat, raising questions at his party’s high command. Plus, he is believed to have registered his displeasure at the high command ignoring his preferred candidates in certain constituencies of the state.
Eyesore for Modi-Shah
Adityanath has emerged as a proverbial eyesore for the Modi-Shah regime which has enjoyed unfettered clout in several other states.
The mighty duo replaced its popular CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan with a lesser known figure in Madhya Pradesh. A first-time MLA was installed as a CM in Rajasthan to sideline the former CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
Modi changed CMs at will in his home state of Gujarat. The duo executed organisational changes in many other states across north and south India replacing the ‘old guards’ with its ‘acolytes. The Hindutva party did away with all those who either dissented with Modi or had the potential to replace him. Modi and Shah acted like one in axing the stalwarts of Vajpayee-Advani era.
Modi seems to feel insecure against his party’s popular and powerful leaders and goes all out to crush/ sideline them. Soon after he was saddled as the PM in 2014, he drove out L. K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to what the party under his stewardship coined as the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’. Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh and Arun Shourie were among several others who were “shining stars” during A.B Vajpayee-Advani era who suffered humiliation in the Modi age.
Modi got more power after the 2019 polls. This time, he dropped Sushma Swaraj as the external affairs minister. Nitin Gadkari was divested of his shipping portfolio and was dropped from the party’s parliamentary board so that the duo had free run with the decision making. The list of sidelined leaders in the Sangh Parivar has swelled like never before. It’s probably for the first time in the Sangh Parivar history that a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief (Mohan Bhagwat) has publically raised a question about a BJP PM(Modi) in office.
In fact, sidelining the rivals is not something new in politics. Moraji Desai, K. Kamaraj and S. Nijlingappa questioned Indira Gandhi’s ‘authoritarian streaks’ and broke away from the grand old party in 1960’s.
Choudhary Charan Singh replaced Morarji Desai as a prime minister after a protracted tussle of power during the Janata Party era. Chandra Shekhar edged out Vishwanath Pratap Singh as the PM in 1991.
Narasimha Rao faced a rebellion from Arjun Singh. Mulayam Singh Yadav harboured a grudge against Lalu Prasad Yadav for siding with H. D. Devegowda in 1996 to scuttle his (Mulayam’s) chance of becoming PM. Even the modest Manmohan Singh was said to have Pranav Mukherjee as his rival for the top post.
Several states of India, too, have witnessed political rivalries. For instance, Lalu Prasad Yadav fought against Ram Sunder Das to become chief minister of Bihar in 1990. Earlier, Mulayam Singh had edged past Ajit Singh to become CM of Uttar Pradesh in 1989.
But Modi is perceived to be more systematic and ruthless against his potential rivals. He didn’t spare even the chief of RSS – the alma mater of his political career and source of his ideological moorings. In the middle of elections, the BJP president, J. P Nadda went public asserting that the BJP no longer needed the RSS to take it forward.
Enemies Within
But this is also for the first time since he became CM of Gujarat, Modi is faced with the murmurs of rebellion within his own party. More than the allies – the Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal (United) – he appears to stand troubled by the enemies within.
Apart from U.P, the dissenting voices within the Sangh Parivar are emerging from West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan, states where the BJP suffered setback.
Now, defying his party’s high command, Adityanath has further ignored Maurya and his other deputy, Brajesh Pathak, deploying his “own men” in the 10 assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh scheduled for by-elections shortly.
The BJP lost 29 of its 62 Lok Sabha seats when the results came out on June 4. The party suffered a disastrous performance in the recent by-polls in 13 other assembly seats across seven states.
Will the BJP perform respectably in the by-elections in UP? It’s highly unlikely given the robust resurgence of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, part of the larger Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
Moreover, against the palpable disunity in the Sangh Parivar, the SP- Congress alliance has gone from strength to strength with Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav acting like one on the issues of poverty, rural distress, unemployment, paper leaks and shortcomings of the Union budget.
Moreover, it’s not only the U.P – billed as the BJP’s strongest bastion before June 4 – the BJP is faced with insurmountable challenges in the three other states – Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand – where assembly elections are scheduled before the end of 2024. Delhi is due for the same in early 2025.
Thus, Adityanath – a metaphor for bulldozer justice and excesses on the minorities and Dalits – is not the only headache for Modi. He will have to battle it out in five other states including Delhi that might prove to be a herculean task during his third term in office.
(Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, author, media educator and independent researcher in folklore).