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Diwali over, NDA, INDIA bloc gear up for fillip to UP bypolls campaign
Uttar Pradesh is set to witness another show of strength between BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc in the bypolls
With Diwali celebrations over, political parties have started gearing up for campaign in the nine assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh going to bypoll on November 20.
The decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to reschedule the assembly bypolls in the state from November 13 to 20 has provided the much-needed time to the political parties to reorganise their strategies and re-energise their cadre for campaign after the weeklong festivity.
While the BJP and its ally RLD welcomed the poll panel decision, the Samajwadi Party and Congress termed it a ploy of the ruling party in view of “the anger prevailing among the voters over anti-people policies of the NDA government”.
Even as attacks and counterattacks continued, top leaders of the NDA and the INDIA bloc were busy giving final touches to their campaign programme in the meetings organised in their respective party offices on Monday.
After the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Uttar Pradesh is set to witness another show of strength between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance and Samajwadi Party-led INDIA bloc in the bypolls.
The SP ally Congress has decided to not field candidates in the byelection. The prestige of both CM Yogi Adityanath and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is at stake in these bypolls.
The BJP has already announced that CM Yogi Adityanath will lead the campaign while the two deputy CMs Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya as well as the battery of ministers and BJP office-bearers will hammer the opposition ranks by addressing public meetings, street corner meetings, chaupals besides door-to-door visits in various constituencies.
The CM, who has already completed around two rounds of campaigning for the bypoll, will be on a whirlwind tour of the state addressing public meetings in all the nine constituencies in three days. He will launch campaign from Ghaziabad on November 8. Later, Yogi will address public meetings in Kundarki (Moradabad) and Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar) assembly constituencies.
On November 9, the CM will address public meetings in Sisamau (Kanpur), Karhal (Mainpuri) and Khair (Aligarh) assembly segments. On November 11, he will address public meetings Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar) , Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Majhawan (Mirzapur) assembly seats.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will give momentum to the party campaign by addressing a party workers’ conference in Ghaziabad assembly constituency on Tuesday. The SP chief will discuss the party’s strategy with local leaders to win the seat that is considered a BJP stronghold.
SP senior leaders, including party’s state chief Shyam Lal Pal, national general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav as well as other members of the Yadav family, including Dimple Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav, Aditya Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav, are campaigning in various constituencies.
“The party MPs, MLAs and office-bearers have been allotted various constituencies to manage the campaign. They are camping in their respective constituencies and coordinating with local party units to activate the organisation at booth level before the bypoll,” said an SP leader. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has also fielded candidates in the nine assembly constituencies to make the contest triangular.
“While BSP chief Mayawati is focused on the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, she has directed her nephew Akash Anand, who is BSP’s national coordinator, to lead the party campaign in the UP bypoll. While Akash is camping in two states, BSP state unit chief Vishwanath Pal is leading the campaign in the nine UP constituencies,” said a BSP leader.
