Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya made a significant statement on Monday, asserting that it is the political party that contests and wins elections, not the government in power. His remarks came just a few weeks after he had stated that the party organisation is always more important than the government.

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Addressing the working committee meeting of the state unit of the BJP's Backward Classes Morcha in Lucknow, Maurya said, "Was there a BJP government in 2014? Did we win the (Lok Sabha) elections or not? In the 2017 (UP Assembly elections), were we having the government? Did we win or not? When we had won, there was no government, and when the government was there, we felt that we could do it on the strength of the government."

"Based on the strength of the government, an election cannot be won. The party contests it and it is the party which wins it ('sarkaar ke bal pe chunaav nahi jeeta jaataa, party hee lardti hai, aur party hee jeetati hai'). It is always the party which contests the elections, and it is the party which eventually wins it," he added.

Urging party workers to gear up for the 2027 UP Assembly elections, he said, "Forget the mistakes which were committed in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and work to ensure a historic win in the 2027 UP Assembly elections." These remarks come at a time when there are signs of internal discord within the BJP in Uttar Pradesh.

The party suffered an unexpected loss in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which were won by the SP-Congress alliance. Maurya's differences with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are widely acknowledged even within the party, and his comment at a state party meeting that "organisation is always bigger than government" was seen as a veiled criticism of Yogi's leadership.

The purported video of Monday's event, which showed Maurya and another deputy chief minister leaving the venue before Adityanath's arrival, further fueled speculations about the tensions within the state BJP unit. However, a senior BJP leader dismissed the claims made about the video, stating that it was "fake".

(With Agency Inputs)