New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Union Minister and BJP election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday met senior Brahmin leaders of the party from the state to discuss plans to woo the community before the next year’s assembly elections.
For the last few months, speculation has been doing the rounds that the Brahmin community in Uttar Pradesh is unhappy with the ruling BJP in the state.
Sources said that in the meeting it was discussed that Brahmin is not unhappy with the government but there may be some resentment at local levels due to some administrative reasons.
“It has been discussed that if there is any resentment then party leaders must meet the community which is unhappy and address their grievances at the earliest,” sources said.
The meeting which lasted for three hours was held at Pradhan’s official residence here and was attended by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, ministers in state government Shrikant Sharma, MP Harish Dwivedi and others. It is learnt that UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal was also present in the meeting.
Governor of Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra was also at Pradhan’s residence at the time of the meeting but whether he attended or not is not known.
Brahmins constitute around 10 per cent of the total electorate of UP and this support is crucial for BJP’s victory in 2022 assembly polls.
BJP Brahmin leaders have been asked to start a community outreach plan to placate them and explain to them about government welfare schemes which benefited the community.
In September, the BJP organised a ‘prabuddh varg sammelan’ across Uttar Pradesh to reach out to the Brahmin community. A section in the saffron party feels that there is a perception among the community that the Yogi Adityanath government ignored the community. However, another section in the party feels that the community is with the party and resentment is the creation of the opposition.
