Is there friction between the Yogi Adityanath-led government and its coalition partners in Uttar Pradesh? This question and related speculation has started doing the rounds in political circles, soon after Om Prakash Rajbhar, who is a state minister and chief of NDA ally SBSP, skipped a crucial meeting chaired by the chief minister but attended another held by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Political analysts and others have questioned if everything is going smoothly between the BJP government and its allies in the state. On July 22, Adityanath held a high-level meeting during his visit to Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
Party sources said all MLAs from neighbouring districts in the Purvanchal region – Varanasi, Jaunpur, Bhadohi, Chandauli, Ghazipur and others – were called for the meeting.
Barring Rajbhar, however, all attended the meeting in which different political issues were discussed. But, his absence led to a buzz about a possible rift in the coalition. This was further fuelled when both Maurya and him posted a picture of their meeting on social media.
“Today I had a cordial meeting with Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya at the camp office located at 7 Kalidas Marg in Lucknow. Discussed on various topics,” Rajbhar said in a post on X. Maurya also shared a photo of the meeting on Instagram.
Though the SBSP made it clear that Rajbhar could not attend the CM’s meeting as he was preoccupied with the meeting of district panchayat chiefs, chaired by Maurya in Lucknow, the clarification failed to shut down the rumour mill.
Nishad Party chief also meets Keshav Prasad Maurya
A day after, another political development took place when Sanjay Nishad, chief of Nishad Party that is another BJP ally, met Maurya on July 23. The deputy CM shared the picture of the meeting on X saying: “Had a courtesy visit to Hon’ble cabinet minister and national president of Nishad Party Dr Sanjay Nishad ji and state president of Nishad Party Shri Ravindra Mani Nishad ji at the camp office located at 7 Kalidas Marg, Lucknow and discussed on various topics.”
Maurya’s meeting with Nishad came after the OBC leader’s suggestion that the “misuse of bulldozer” was one of the reasons for the NDA’s decline in UP in the Lok Sabha elections. This was, however, Nishad’s second meeting with Maurya in the last 10 days.
Before this, Nishad met Maurya soon after he said no government is bigger than the organisation, while addressing the BJP’s executive meeting on July 14. “I am first a party worker, then a deputy CM. ‘Sangathan se badi koi sarkar nahin hoti, har ek karyakarta humara gaurav hai (organisation is bigger than the government… no one is above the organisation. Every worker is our pride),” Maurya had said on X.
The remark was seen as an attack on Adityanath and, soon after the incident, Nishad had met Maurya and allegedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the current leadership dynamics.
Maurya recently wrote to the CM seeking details on the implementation of reservation guidelines by the appointments department. Sources said the original letter was sent last year while the recent one was a “reminder”.
Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal (S), another ally of the BJP, had written to Adityanath on June 27, accusing the state government of discrimination in the OBC reservation. She alleged Dalits were unfairly being denied jobs, causing widespread anger, and called for an end to this practice.
Political analysts, however, said this was not a good sign, especially after a below-average performance in the general elections and ahead of the crucial bypoll as well as the 2027 assembly election.
They said there was a need to talk, hold a discussion and douse the dissent among the allies, which often provides grip to the BJP in the eastern, western and central parts of the state due to a hold over the OBC population. It also portrayed a weak image of the party and gave a chance to the opposition to corner it, they added.
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