Keshav Maurya heaps praise on Yogi Adityanath after rift buzz: ‘Best CM in the country’

Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday praised chief minister Yogi Adityanath saying the state has the best chief minister in the country.

Addressing workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mirzapur, Keshav Maurya said the party’s “double-engine” is doing the best work in the country.

“The BJP is in power in the country as well as in the state. People know and believe that our double-engine government is doing the best work in the country. Is there any other leader like PM (Narendra) Modi in the world, and is there any other CM like Yogi Adityanath in the country?” Keshav Maurya asked.

“When our PM Modi is the most influential leader in the world and when our CM is the best in the country, the best work is being done,” Maurya told the workers. The deputy chief minister also urged party workers to strengthen the BJP at the grassroots.

Maurya’s praise for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister comes days after reports of infighting within the state BJP unit after the Lok Sabha poll debacle.

The ‘rift’ in UP BJP

There has long been a buzz about Keshav Maurya’s ‘less-than-warm relationship’ with Yogi Adityanath. Last month, there was also speculation that the party’s central leadership might soon make a major announcement about the organisational shake-up in the state.

Maurya, a prominent OBC leader, had been increasingly vocal with repeated statements about the organisation being above the government. “The party organisation is bigger than the government and nobody is bigger than the organisation,” he had said at a meeting a BJP workers.

His outreach efforts and public statements were interpreted as a subtle way to target Yogi Adityanath. He had also visited the central leadership in Delhi, further fueling speculations.

Maurya is currently serving his second term as the deputy CM of Uttar Pradesh. In 2017, he was the state BJP President when the BJP formed the majority government under CM Yogi Adityanth with 312 seats in the Assembly.

In the 2022 elections, Maurya lost the Assembly election but continued in his position as Deputy CM along with Brijesh Pathak, he was later elected to the Legislative Council.

The BJP’s tally of Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh was reduced to 33 seats, a drop of 29 from 62 in 2019 while the INDIA bloc gained ground with the Samajwadi Party (SP) winning 37 seats, a jump of 32 seats as compared to 2019. The Congress tally went up to six seats in 2024 from one in 2019.