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Amid speculations of friction within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday, 22 June, paid a visit to Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya's residence, where certain senior RSS leaders were also gathered at the time, as per a report by The Indian Express.
While the chief minister had purportedly dropped in to bless Maurya's son and daughter-in-law on their recent wedding, the visit appears to have greater political significance - serving as a show of solidarity within the BJP unit of Uttar Pradesh.
Reportedly, Adityanath is not known to have visited the deputy chief minister’s residence before, despite it being located only metres from his own.
The lunch at Maurya's house was also attended by RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale, Joint General Secretary Krishna Gopal and Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma.
UP Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya on 20 June had also similarly suggested the CM face for the state will be chosen after the party secures victory in the upcoming elections.
The Adityanath-led government had recently come under fire for its inefficiency in the management of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of coordination between his government and BJP MLAs and MPs.
Speculations of a rift between the UP CM and the BJP top brass over these matters had been followed by a slew of high-level meetings between the two in Delhi and Lucknow, following which the party reportedly decided to continue with incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as its face for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due early next year.
(With inputs from The Hindu and The Indian Express)
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