New Delhi, The much-anticipated cabinet meet of Yogi Adityanath is finally here. Amid the much-hyped Kumbh Mela, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath now shifts cabinet meet Prayagraj.This Tuesday morning, Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet will meet at the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, which will be chaired by the chief minister himself. The meeting will begin at 11 am, the chief minister is expected to take a dip at the confluence after that.This is the first time during Yogi Adityanath’s tenure as CM that his ministers are holding an official meeting outside Lucknow.
The move is the latest among a series of measures by the CM to hype up the festival, which is among the world’s largest religious gatherings, at Prayagraj.For BJP this time of the year is crucial keeping in mind the Lok Sabha Polls. The national elections, due by May, are expected to be a close contest after the party lost power in three heartland states in the recent assembly elections.In Uttar Pradesh — the 80-seater state that decides who rules in Delhi — a twist has been added by the freshly minted alliance between Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati.A third and the most important factor is the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as the general secretary of the Congress in eastern part of the state, where lies Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi and Yogi Adityanath’s home turf Gorakhpur.
The party is expecting to capture the upper caste votes that went to the BJP in 2014 general elections, during which it won 71 of the state’s 80 seats. So this is going to be the war of prestige in East Uttar Pradesh. Is this a desperate move of Yogi to cash in on the religious sentiments in the state which are at its zenith as devotees are lining up in Prayagraj to take a holy dip.
