Meerut to Mathura, Modi and Yogi to spearhead BJP’s electoral blitz

PM rally in Meerut on March 30; Yogi will also embark on a whirlwind tour of western Uttar Pradesh, starting from Mathura on March 27

MEERUT: Prime minister Narendra Modi will kickstart the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh from Meerut. The PM will address a rally in Meerut in the presence of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Choudhary on March 30. BJP has fielded Arun Govil, who played Rama in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, from Meerut, encapsulating a message on the Ayodhya temple, which was inaugurated earlier this year.

All these districts of western UP cover 14 Lok Sabha seats, and BJP won seven seats. (Sourced)

Five years ago, on March 28, Modi had begun the party’s election campaign from here in the previous Lok Sabha election and infused a sense of pride and nationalism by highlighting the surgical strike in Pakistan after the attack in Pulwama.

Meanwhile, in a bid to lay the electoral groundwork for the ‘Modi government once again’, Yogi Adityanath will also embark on a whirlwind tour of western Uttar Pradesh. He will address ‘Prabudh Sammelan’ in fifteen districts of western UP in five days, commencing from Mathura on March 27 and concluding in Rampur on March 31. Yogi aims to engage in dialogue with intellectuals, including doctors, engineers, professionals, and teachers from these districts, to lay the electoral groundwork for the ‘Modi government once again’ before the elections.

According to the programme released by the Bharatiya Janata Party, CM Yogi will cover 15 districts in 5 days from March 27 to 31. His enlightening conferences will commence on Wednesday from Mathura, Meerut, and Ghaziabad, where he will interact with dignitaries as well as the common people. The next day, CM Yogi’s programme is proposed in Bijnor, Moradabad, and Amroha, where he will also engage in dialogue with intellectuals. On March 29, CM will participate in conferences in Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, and Saharanpur. On March 30, he will interact with intellectuals in Baghpat (Modinagar), Bulandshahr, and Gautam Buddha Nagar, while on March 31, he will attend conferences in Bareilly, Rampur, and Pilibhit.

This entire belt is known as the ‘Sugarcane belt,’ with the BKU’s headquarters situated in Sisauli town of Muzaffarnagar. The farmers’ 13-month-long movement against the three farm laws had its effect on the Assembly election of 2022, as the party lost 9 out of 15 seats in constituencies of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, and Shamli districts. It lost 2 seats in Meerut district’s constituencies, however, made a clean sweep in 20 constituencies of Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar districts. Its candidates, however, faced defeat in 6 out of 10 assembly constituencies of Amroha and Sambhal districts.

All these districts of western UP cover 14 Lok Sabha seats, and BJP won seven seats. SP, BSP, and RLD had an alliance in the previous Lok Sabha election of 2019, and BSP won four seats and SP managed to win three seats.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has now formed an alliance with the BJP, and the latter has assuaged the anger of Jats, who are primarily farmers, by announcing the posthumous ‘Bharat Ratna’ to former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, the grandfather of Jayant Choudhary. The RLD chief had expressed his approval with the comment ‘Dil Jeet Liya’ (Heart won) after the announcement and snapped his party’s alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The RLD has been allotted two Lok Sabha seats - Bijnor and Baghpat - as part of this alliance.

Additionally, the BJP has given one legislative council seat to the RLD. With this alliance, RLD’s national president Jayant Chaudhary will now be seen campaigning for BJP candidates, while senior BJP leaders will campaign for RLD candidates. In this sequence, Jayant Chaudhary’s presence in Meerut alongside PM Modi is significant.

Fielding Arun Govil from Meerut has made it clear that the BJP will make the ‘Pran Prathistha’ of Ram Lalla a major election plank in the west. This was also evident from the party’s move to organise a rally in Bulandshahar district on January 25, three days after the Pran Pratistha in Ayodhya.

The region has a significant share of Lodh Rajputs, the clansmen of the late Kalyan Singh, whose emergence was also from the Ram temple movement. Under such circumstances, people of the area will experience a double dose of ‘Ram,’ and experts believe that it will help the party polarize Hindu voters cutting across caste lines.

The PM could also highlight the construction of the Delhi-Meerut expressway, the ongoing construction of the Ganga expressway between Meerut and Prayagraj, Namo Bharat between Meerut and Delhi, construction of the sports university in Meerut, along with many other projects and welfare schemes of the union and state governments, to present a holistic governance of his government.

The first phase of polling will take place on April 19, the second phase on April 26, the third phase on May 7, the fourth phase on May 13, the fifth phase on May 20, the sixth phase on May 25, and the seventh and final phase on June 1. Polling in Meerut will take place on April 26, during the second phase.

(With inputs from ANI)