New Delhi: Even though the internal rift in Uttar Pradesh's BJP unit is 'widening', the newly-appointed party's vice president AK Sharma has endorsed Yogi Adityanath as the Chief Minister candidate for the next year's state Assembly polls.
However, UP's labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya has said that the next CM of the state would be decided by the central leadership of the BJP after the results of the Assembly elections.
In a letter to state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh, Sharma backed Adityanath as the CM face for the upcoming Assembly polls.
Recently, the BJP chief of the UP unit had also stated that Adityanath would be the CM face for next Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
"Corruption and hooliganism have ended and development is taking place. We will fight the 2022 elections under hardworking and honest Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath," Dev had told reporters.
But Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya had earlier said in Bareilly that the party's national leadership will decide under whom the upcoming elections will be fought.
When asked if there was any confusion in the party over this, BJP spokesperson Harishchandra Srivastava played down the issue.
Swatantra Dev is the state unit president and what he has said is important. What Keshav Prasad Maurya and Swami Prasad Maurya have said is on the basis of the party's norms and traditions, he said.
Formally, the announcement of the chief minister's name is made by the parliamentary board, and so Keshav Prasad Maurya and Swami Prasad Maurya would have said this, Srivastava added.
The BJP's central leadership has also dismissed rumours about a leadership change in the state ahead of the next year's Assembly elections. While shooting down speculation of a leadership change in the state, Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh had also defended the Adityanath government's handling of the Covid-19 situation.