LUCKNOW: BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh on Wednesday lauded UP government’s efforts to step up the vaccination drive against Covid, in what was seen as a fresh endorsement of CM Yogi Aditgyanath by a top party leader, who also happens to be a close affiliate of the RSS.
This also comes almost 12 days after PM Narendra Modi, during his meeting with CM Yogi, hailed Covid management by the UP government.
“On the back of 7.25 lakh vaccination on June 21, UP vaccinated 8.1 lakh people in the last 24 hours.
Momentum picking up…Good going CM,” Santhosh tweeted, while tagging Yogi.
The UP government administered over 8 lakh vaccination doses, which was highest in the country.
As a matter of fact, CM Yogi has set a benchmark of carrying out 10 crore vaccinations in the next three months.
Santhosh’s statement attained much political significance a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav simultaneously upped the ante while cornering the BJP vis-a-vis pandemic.
While Gandhi released a while paper suggesting measures which need to be taken to tackle the much anticipated third wave, Akhilesh accused the UP government of hiding the actual number of deaths due to Covid.
Political experts said that the pandemic has indeed armed the opposition which has been seeking a political resurrection in UP where assembly elections are due next year.
The development comes after Santhosh and BJP vice-president Radha Mohan Singh camped in Lucknow for two days and met the RSS, state BJP leaders and UP ministers to chart out a template for a cohesive strategy to counter the opposition.
BJP leaders were quick to read into the fresh message of Santhosh, saying that the party organisation was all spruced up to back the UP government in its rigorous drive to carry out Corona vaccination.
“The vaccination is being done by the government.
But as a member of the ruling it is our job to make people aware about the benefits of vaccination.
We also need to dispel the misconceptions which started gaining ground after the opposition expressed its apprehension about the vaccines,” said a senior UP BJP leader.
Party sources said that vaccination has been one of the key issues taken up by the UP BJP ranks during their interaction with Santhosh and Singh.
As a matter of fact, the UP BJP had charted out a programme through which party ranks including MPs, MLAs and organisational leaders would fan out across the state and oversee the vaccination process, which is seen as a major step to safeguarding the people from the deadly virus.
During his earlier visit to Lucknow, Santhosh had not only hailed the the UP government for bringing down the daily Covid count by 93% but had also termed state government’s decision to vaccinate parents of children aged below 12 years as “wise” given the chances of a possible third wave which is expected to affect the children.