A handful of journalists are speculating that Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath are on a warpath. The rumour was sparked recently when reports said that the Uttar Pradesh CM is dead against the Prime Minister sending a bureaucrat to UP with the proposal that he be made a Deputy chief minister. Yogi opposed the idea. Since then, speculations have been rife that Yogi and Modi are crossing swords.

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So far, the rumour is limited to a small section of the media, who have claimed that Modi is unhappy with the way Yogi has handled the pandemic in his State.

Rajat Sethi, an author who has pro-BJP proclivities, has laughed off the rumours and said that it's a case of Garbage-in-garbage-out drama by the media. He is of the opinion that the Centre is 100% happy with how UP has fared under Yogi during the second wave. This month has seen a remarkable reopening of the UP economy, by the way.

Most of the BJP supporters and outspoken Netizens are of the view that some anti-BJP journalists are cooking up stories of a rift. They are saying that Modi and Amit Shah, not to forget BJP National President JP Nadda, fielded Yogi as a star campaigner in the recent West Bengal elections. There is no insecurity in Modi's mind, they are adding, suggesting that Yogi's massive popularity among the core Hindutva support base is not seen as an obstacle but a building block by Modi.

When Yogi was promoted to chief ministership in 2017, both Modi and Shah must have made a SWOT analysis. Why would they become insecure in the face of his popularity? This is the substance of a lot of comments on social media. There is an argument that sections of media have always enjoyed speculating on imaginary differences within the BJP. During NDA-I, the media would write about Advani and Vajpayee developing rivalry, a Twitter user wrote.

Uttar Pradesh is going to go to poll in early 2022. If there is no unity in the party, it's a gone case for sure. BJP and RSS must be hoping for the best.