A chance for Adityanath to prove his mettle, once again

UP is set to witness bypolls on 10 Assembly seats. While BJP is looking to get its mojo back, the SP is on a high after success in Lok Sabha elections. VIRENDRA SINGH RAWAT gives an insight

- VIRENDRA SINGH RAWAT

Even as whispers of friction between Yogi Adityanath's Uttar Pradesh government and the Bharatiya Janata Party's central organisation refuse to fade, the saffron-robed monkpolitician is staring at a political litmus test: The upcoming assembly bypolls across 10 seats.

The recent Lok Sabha debacle has cast a shadow, and his task ahead is clear- restore the party's flagging confidence in the politically crucial state.

The Election Commission is yet to release the bypoll schedule, but the battle lines have already been drawn. The BJP is squaring off against the Opposition Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, now a crucial piece of the INDIA bloc's larger strategy. Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, too, has thrown its hat into the ring; it usually skips Assembly and parliamentary bypolls.

The chief minister has sent 30 ministers and the party has deployed 15 senior leaders as caretakers (or in-charges) to the 10 pollbound Assembly constituencies.

Their mission? To soothe any discontent among the rank and file, whose murmurs of neglect have grown louder in recent months.