Speculation is rife about Gujarat cadre IAS officer Arvind Kumar Sharma, who has taken premature retirement and joined the BJP, playing a big role in the state’s politics in the coming days. On Friday, he was named a candidate for MLC polls in UP. Sharma, an officer of the 1988 batch and a native of Mau in UP, said while joining the party on Thursday: "I got a phone call and was told to join the party". He was not due to retire for the next couple of years. His entry into the party, without a political legacy or experience, has given rise to intense speculation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known for giving key posts to officers from the Gujarat cadre. Sharma once held the post of CBI’s additional director. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had labelled Sharma as ‘Modi’s blue-eyed boy’. Sharma is believed to be Modi's ‘eyes and ears’, keeping a close watch on the goings-on, as the state prepares for an election in 2022.
The state has two deputy chief ministers, Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya. Speculation is on whether one will be removed and replaced with the new entrant, or whether there will be one more deputy added to the list. Some observers believe that he will be given important portfolios like Home and even Medium and Small Scale Industries, the latter having emerged as the driver of the state’s economy.
Of Yogi Adityanath’s two current deputies, Keshav Prasad Maurya’s graph has been on the rise (he first won an election only in 2012), but there are believed to be problems of coordination between him and the CM. Yet, he is believed to be the party’s vote-getter among the backward castes. The other deputy, a former mayor of Lucknow, is the one who elicits greater disgruntlement, as the party is perceived to be sidelining the interests of the Brahmins. This is an issue that has been played up by the opposition.
Sharma, also a Brahmin, is tipped to be elected to the legislative council, 12 seats of which go up for elections soon. The BJP has the numbers to win at least 10 of these seats.