UP CM Yogi meets Shah, Nabin amid buzz over portfolio allocation, poll strategy

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi amid speculations over the allocation of portfolios following the recent expansion of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet. Recently, new ministers were inducted into the state Cabinet, however, their portfolios are yet to be allocated.

While the meeting is being linked to discussions over the distribution of ministerial portfolios, sources said multiple issues, including strategy for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and organisational changes, were also discussed by the two senior BJP leaders. Later, Adityanath also met BJP president Nitin Nabin.

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The 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections are far more than a state contest for the BJP. The state remains central to national politics.

Apparently, the party is planning to activate a hyper-local, booth-level micromanagement strategy in Uttar Pradesh — the country’s largest and politically most crucial state, often seen as the gateway to power in New Delhi. The strategy is aimed at countering the Samajwadi Party’s ‘PDA’ — Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak — social coalition, which emerged as a formidable electoral force.

The BJP’s reduced tally in the 2024 general elections — when the SP-Congress alliance restricted the NDA to 36 of Uttar Pradesh’s 80 Lok Sabha seats — dented the perception of the party’s invincibility in the Hindi heartland.