Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off the campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha election by launching development projects worth over ₹19,100 crore at rally in Bulandshahr in West U.P. on Thursday.
As the rally comes three days after the inauguration of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Pran Pratishtha (consecration) of the new Ram Lalla idol there, the prime minister is expected to rely on a combination of aastha (faith) and vikas (development) while making the party’s pitch for the Lok Sabha election.
Already, the BJP has planned two-month-long events focusing on the Ram temple to mobilise the party cadre and supporters for the Lok Sabha election.
“It’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first rally in Uttar Pradesh after Pran Pratishtha of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. The BJP has mobilised its resources for the success of the rally and organised a fortnight-long public contact drive in West U.P. to ensure that people come in strength for the PM’s rally,” Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary said.
Located in West U.P, Bulandshahr has a sizeable population of Lodh Rajputs, Jats, Gujjars, Muslims and Dalits, all of whom are considered to be part of the BJP’s traditional support base.
{{/usCountry}}Located in West U.P, Bulandshahr has a sizeable population of Lodh Rajputs, Jats, Gujjars, Muslims and Dalits, all of whom are considered to be part of the BJP’s traditional support base.
{{/usCountry}}Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and ex-Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh governor Kalyan Singh had made Bulandshahr a stronghold of the BJP, which has won the Lok Sabha seat in successive elections since 1991, except in 2009 when Kamlesh Valmiki of Samajwadi Party bagged it.
In the 2022 assembly election, the BJP won all the seven assembly seats in Bulandshahr-- Anupshahar, Dibai, Khurja, Bulandshahr Sadar, Syana, Shikarpur and Sikandrabad.
The BJP had won eight of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in this part of western Uttar Pradesh in 2019 and is now looking to bag the remaining seats that it had lost to the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party (SP-BSP) alliance then.
“The BJP hopes the Prime Minister’s rally will give boost to the party campaign,” a party leader said.
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The opposition Samajwadi Party and the Congress have also focused on West U.P. with both parties trying to win the support of the Muslims, Jats and Dalits to challenge the BJP.
The Congress’s U.P. Jodo Yatra covered a majority of the districts of the western region from Saharanpur to Shahjahanpur. Rahul Gandhi will also pass through west U.P. when his Congress Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra enters Uttar Pradesh next month.
Similarly, the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpasankhak) Yatra launched by the Samajwadi Party on January 17 will cover several of districts of West U.P, including Shahjahanpur, Badaun, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnor, Haridwar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad.
The BJP plans to counter the opposition with a massive show of strength and round five lakh people are expected to attend the prime minister’s rally at Navada village in Bulandshahr on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had reviewed preparations for the rally on January 20.
Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary and the party’s state secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh are camping in Bulandshahr.
KEY PROJECTS
The projects that the Prime Minister will inaugurate and dedicate for the Bulandshahr and Meerut divisions include a medical college named after former CM Kalyan Singh, the 173-km-long double-line electrified section between New Khurja and New Rewari on the dedicated freight corridor (DFC), a four-lane highway connecting Aligarh and Kannauj, Indian Oil’s Tundla- Gawaria pipeline, an integrated township in Greater Noida and other development projects to set the pitch for the BJP election campaign in West U.P.