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To prepare for UP polls, Amit Shah to meet 2019 Lok Sabha in-charges
The BJP had won 64 out of 80 seats from UP despite an alliance between SP and BSP— the reason why meeting with 2019 Lok Sabha in-charges is listed prominently in Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s Friday itinerary
Union home minister Amit Shah would sit down to chart BJP’s 2022 UP election roadmap from Friday by consulting Lok Sabha (LS) in-charges in 2019 general election when the party won 64 out of 80 seats from the state.
The BJP had won these many seats despite an alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)—the reason why meeting with 2019 Lok Sabha in-charges is listed prominently in Shah’s Friday itinerary. Shah, who will reach Lucknow in the morning, will spend Friday night in the state capital.
“Those LS poll in-charges would have an in-depth view of things. They have on-the-ground estimate of how we did well despite a tough caste arithmetic that the coming together of SP-BSP presented before us in 2019 LS polls. That’s why his meeting with them would be important because he would surely base his campaign strategy, either wholly or in part, on the basis of his meetings with them,” a BJP leader said.
UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev held a meeting on Tuesday evening to finalise the agenda for the series of meetings that Shah is scheduled to hold through the day on Friday. Shah is to also meet poll-in charges for each assembly segment in 2022 UP polls besides a meeting with all important party functionaries including members of the UP election panel headed by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and comprising among others information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Swatantra Dev, state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal and UP in-charge Radha Mohan Singh.
The Union home minister is also scheduled to launch party’s membership drive from Vrindavan scheme, Sector 17 Colony, after his arrival in Lucknow. Just as he had done in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the 2017 UP polls when he was the party’s UP in-charge. Shah would also flag off party’s campaign vehicles for various parts of the state.
BJP eying Dalit votes
The BJP is eyeing Dalit voters, the reason why after holding a meeting of Jatav Dalits on Tuesday, the BJP is to hold meeting with another influential caste group – Sonkars – on Wednesday. At the Jatav meet, BJP lined up leaders of the influential Dalit sub-caste, prominently showcasing Baby Rani Maurya, a Jatav Dalit woman tasked with holding meetings to connect with this key Dalit subcaste considered to be staunch supporters of Bahujan Samaj Party.
Former BJP MP and now an MLC Vidyasagar Sonkar, who visited the Panchayat Bhawan venue for the meeting, said the BJP was connecting with all.
“The opposition is busy in slander campaign but in these social representative meetings, we are telling the people how the benefits of the government schemes have reached one and all. The Modi-Yogi governments at the centre and the state have connected with the poorest of the poor and this is the reason why a desperate opposition is busy spreading rumours,” Sonkar said.
