BJP to UP brass: Rein in self-propaganda

New Delhi: With the battle to project a face for the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh intensifying and saffron candidates taking various routes to stake claim, a worried BJP high command has cautioned leaders not to indulge in any “self-propaganda”.

If BJP leader Varun Gandhi’s supporters were pasting posters of him on the walls, Yogi Adityanath’s followers, the Hindu Yuva Vahini, took out processions demanding that he be projected as the candidate for CM.

The BJP high command has also taken strong exception to a recent WhatsApp message, called “Keshav Chalisa”, doing the rounds of social media. The message, written along the lines of the Hanuman Chalisa, extols the virtues of UP BJP chief Keshav Prasad Maurya and says the state will prosper if he takes over as CM.

While Maurya denied any link to the “chalisa” and claimed it was an Opposition “conspiracy”, the party high command has conveyed to him that such messages should not be circulating. Party insiders claim the Keshav Chalisa is the “work of the Keshav camp” to pressure the BJP high command. It reads: “Jai Keshav gyan gun saagar / Jai Keshav tihun lok ujagar / UP doot atulit baldhama / Maurya putra Keshav naama / UP bishwaguru ban jawe / Jab Keshav Lucknow mein aawe.”

The BJP, which is trying to pull in all its resources for the high-stakes UP polls, is annoyed at the one-upmanship in the state leadership. Yogi Adityanath, Keshav Maurya and Mahesh Sharma are tacitly trying to project themselves as the party’s face and, with the BJP trying to polarise the vote bank, all three are playing the Hindutva and nationalist cards to “impress” the RSS. The RSS, incidentally, might take the final call on deciding who will be projected as CM in UP.

On Saturday, Yogi Adityanath had yet again played the Hindutva card, accusing the late Mother Teresa of “conspiring to Christianise India”. Speaking at a religious meeting in Basti on Saturday, Yogi Adityanath had said, “Mother Teresa was part of a conspiracy to convert Hindus to Christianity. Hindus were targeted in the name of doing service and then converted by her.”

If Adityanath is not projected as the party’s face, he could be inducted into the Modi Cabinet to send a signal to the core vote bank in the state, sources said.

The BJP high command has made it clear that the final decision in the matter, if there is one, will be taken by party president Amit Shah, in consultation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh.

(This story originally appeared in the Asian Age)