LUCKNOW The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national leadership has delivered a blunt mandate to its Uttar Pradesh cadre, including MLAs and MPs: shed the trappings of power, abandon VIP privileges, and prioritise accessibility to both ordinary citizens and grassroots party workers.
In fact, the message echoes the one delivered by the BJP national president during his Lucknow visit in July after taking charge. Interacting with party leaders, including MLAs, MPs and ministers, he too stressed accessibility to workers and voters alike along with simplicity and cautioned them against arrogance. “The leadership’s current insistence on simplicity appears to be more than a lesson in political etiquette.
It shows an attempt to address the distance that can develop between people’s elected representatives, their grassroots workers and the electorate when the trappings of power begin to dominate their public image,” a senior BJP leader said.
The central command’s zero-tolerance policy for ostentatious displays of power was explicitly outlined during BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde’s recent inaugural visit to Lucknow after being re-appointed as the state’s party in-charge. Tawde ordered an immediate halt to roadside hoardings, massive welcome gates and elaborate arrangements that cause public inconvenience. Yet, there is scepticism even within the BJP about whether such exhortations can change political behaviour. A BJP leader who has since been sidelined questioned whether the party’s repeated emphasis on humility and accessibility was anything more than a cosmetic exercise. For the BJP leadership, however, the concern is believed to be genuine since the party’s electoral machinery in UP depends heavily on its grassroots workers who have often complained through official and unofficial channels that they are ignored by party leaders and bureaucracy including police.
The directive comes as a direct response to the party’s underwhelming performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where internal reviews identified overconfidence, arrogance and a disconnect with the local cadre as primary causes for the electoral setback.
“We were all told not only to avoid flaunting VIP status, but also to remain grounded and maintain contact with old workers and those lower in the hierarchy,” said BJP’s Kanpur Mahanagar president Shiv Ram Singh.
