UP, UP and bumping away in BJP ki UP

Victory has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Or is it? Going by what's happening to the ruling party of India's most UPwardly mobile state, one reckons there're at least two contenders for fatherhood of BJP's poor show in the 2024 general elections. In the orange corner, there's UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, and in the deep orange corner is CM Adityanath. Let's just say the timing has something to do with the upcoming bypolls in 10 assembly seats. As things stand now, BJP as a unit seems a bit bipolar, with rumours of factions within the party smelling like hints. On a bright achha din, Maurya meeting BJP prez J P Nadda in New Delhi and having chai pe charcha for an hour would have meant little. But it seems 58 mins longer than it should have for many within the party to have been just a 'Pranaam, Naddaji' meet.

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav showed that coming up tops in polls - SP won 43 of UP's 80 Lok Sabha seats, BJP winning 36 - does wonders to one's sense of humour. Posting on X the message, 'Monsoon offer: Bring 100, form a government,' he's having fun. In a TV interview earlier, he had stated that if Maurya gets 100 MLAs to join his team, SP would support him for CMship. The problem when the chips are down is that you don't know whether Adityanath would actually dislike that possibility or not.