Baati-Chokha dinner meet spices up political cauldron | Lucknow News
Lucknow: Months after the meeting of BJP’s Thakur legislators during the Monsoon session raised the political temperature, around four dozen Brahmin MLAs and MLCs of the party met over a baati-chokha dinner on Tuesday, spicing up the political cauldron of the state capital. The venue was Kushinagar MLA PN Pathak’s official residence at Bahukhandi Mantri Awas. Among the attendees were MLAs Ratnakar Misra, Prakash Dwivedi, Prem Narain Pandey, Shalabh Mani Tripathi, Ankur Raj Tiwari, Vinay Dwivedi, Rishi Tiwari, Vivekanand Pandey, Kailashnath Shukla along with three dozen other Brahmin MLAs and MLCs.
Interestingly, among the MLCs, Saket Misra, the son of retired bureaucrat Nripendra Misra was also present.The meeting holds significance as it comes days after the BJP appointed seven-time MP from Maharajganj, Pankaj Chaudhary, a Kurmi, as its UP unit chief. The move was seen as the party’s bid to woo back Kurmis in particular and OBCs in general. The 2024 Lok Sabha poll saw a group of OBCs, including Kurmis, drifting away from the saffron party, resulting in a fall in the BJP’s tally in the state — from 62 in 2019 33.Political analysts also see this as BJP Brahmin MLAs’ bid to counter Thakur legislators gathering titled ‘Kutumb Pariwar’. An MLA, who attended Tuesday’s dinner said that it should not be seen as a political gathering. However, he did admit that the political scenario of UP did come up for discussion since most of the attendees were MLAs and MLCs.Political observers see such dinner meetings especially attended by MLAs and MLCs of particular caste as their bid to put pressure on the party leadership to keep their caste in mind while making political appointments. Since the Brahmin legislators have assembled only days after Chaudhary was appointed as UP BJP chief, to see it as counter- pressure tactics should not be completely ruled out, opined another political analyst.This meeting is sure to spice up state BJP’s politics at a time when the UP assembly elections are only 15-16 months away and the the party is making every bid to keep its caste bouquet intact.Efforts to contact Kushinagar MLA PN Pathak, who hosted the dinner, proved futile.
