On Tuesday, 9th July, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers disrupted a party event in Deoria and accused State Minister for Rural Development, Vijay Lakshmi Gautam, of favouring the Samajwadi Party. The workers accused Minister Gautam of being an agent of the Samajwadi Party.
The events unfolded at the event organised by the party at Rainath Brahma College in Salempur, Uttar Pradesh, to honour the local party workers. Gautam was invited as the chief guest to celebrate the party workers. However, she faced significant opposition from the workers themselves who refused to accept honours from her.
Accusing Gautam of undermining BJP’s efforts in the recent elections, party workers shouted slogans against her. District Party President Bhupendra Singh and senior party workers tried to calm the workers down but to no avail. Several party workers boycotted the event and some of them threw away the ceremonial scarves presented to them.
The incident brought forward the deeper dissatisfaction within the BJP ranks that stemmed from a review of the performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024. Notably, Uttar Pradesh fell short of the expectations of the supporters in terms of seats. Following the elections, BJP leadership planned to honour workers who worked tirelessly in their respective constituencies to boost morale. However, the event in Deoria backfired as workers did not hold back while expressing their grievances and blamed Gautam for the setbacks the party faced during the elections.
Following the event, senior BJP leaders expressed their dismay over the organisation of the event. Arun Kumar Singh criticised the event and called it a provocation rather than an honour ceremony. He said that when the party suffered losses, what was the logic of celebrating.
There were around 200 workers who attended the event and around 60 of them led the protests. The absence of key figures such as District Panchayat President Girish Tiwari, former MP Ravinder Kushwaha, and MLC Dr Ratan Pal Singh further fueled the discontent and speculations.
Despite the chaos, district president Bhupendra Singh assured that efforts were underway to address the grievances of the workers. He assured that in the upcoming membership drive in July, the party will identify and address disruptive elements within the party.
Notably, though Gautam started her career with the BJP, she shifted to the Samajwadi Party in 2017 when the BJP did not give her a ticket and contested Assembly Elections on an SP ticket. However, she was defeated by BJP’s Kali Prasad. In 2022, she again joined the BJP and contested the election from Salempur. Gautam won the Assembly Elections in 2022 as Yogi Adityanath returned to power for the second time.
During the Lok Sabha elections, an audio of Vijay Lakshmi Gautam criticising Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath had also gone viral. In the audio, she was blaming the CM of ignoring her and concentrating only on Gorakhpur. However, later, she claimed that the audio is generated using Artificial Intelligence.
