Lucknow:

Top BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh will meet this morning to review preparations for the upcoming by-elections to 10 assembly seats, the first polls in the state after a sharp drop in the ruling party’s tally in the recent Lok Sabha election.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has called a meeting of the cabinet ministers at 11 am at his Lucknow residence. The meeting assumes significance as the BJP has been assessing its electoral strategies in view of the unsatisfactory results in the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP won just 33 of UP’s 80 Lok Sabha seats – behind main rival Samajwadi Party’s 37 – despite bagging a whopping majority in the 2022 assembly elections.

Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya met BJP chief J P Nadda last evening. He left the BJP headquarters without speaking to the media.

Reports suggest Mr Nadda may also meet UP BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary, but there has been no official word on the meeting’s agenda.

Mr Adityanath had at a conclave blamed “over-confidence” for the poor electoral performance in the Lok Sabha elections and suggested the BJP could not effectively counter the INDIA bloc’s campaign. Mr Nadda was present at the conclave.

Not just in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP saw an overall drop in seats as it failed to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha elections 2024.

To discuss its performance, the party has called all its chief ministers and their deputies to Delhi at the end of this month. Modi 3.0’s first budget and the action plan for the first 100 days will also be discussed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and BJP chief JP Nadda are among the senior BJP leaders set to attend the meeting.