The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) top brass is aware of dissatisfaction brewing among at least a section of its lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh, but is of the view that the state leadership should be able to resolve their issues, a functionary of the party said on Wednesday.
The dissatisfaction came to the fore on Tuesday when around 100 lawmakers of the BJP disrupted proceedings of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly when one of their party colleagues, Nand Kishore Gujjar, was not permitted to speak in the House. Opposition Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, and Congress lawmakers supported Gujjar and urged the Speaker to permit him to talk about his detention in Ghaziabad.
A state BJP leader said that the top brass has taken a serious note of the ruckus in Uttar Pradesh and is seized of the matter. “Some MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) have raised questions about the chief minister’s (Yogi Adityanath) working style,” he said.
Another leader said that the lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh are upset with the way police officers do not respond when they ask for help. “It is a long-standing issue which they feel the chief minister is not helping them with,” said the BJP leader.
The functionaries cited above said that the lawmakers have pointed out that Aditynath was often too preoccupied to meet them to listen to their complaints. It was a grievance against the functioning of police that triggered the protest on Tuesday, they added.
Uttar Pradesh assembly’s principal secretary, Pradeep Dubey, said that the lawmakers ended their protest said after an assurance from Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit.
Gujjar said that Dikshit assured him that the district magistrate and superintendent of police of Ghaziabad would be summoned to the House.
Adityanath, who became the chief minister after the BJP swept to power in 2017 winning 312 seats in a 404-member House, was not in the assembly when the lawmakers protested.
