Ghaziabad assembly by-poll: Adityanath asks party workers to secure 80% vote share

The chief minister, who was in the city on Friday to strategise for the upcoming bypoll, spoke to party leaders at Hindi Bhawan

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and leaders in Ghaziabad to immediately start work at the ground level for the upcoming assembly bypoll in the constituency, and urged them to work on getting a 80% vote share.

The Ghaziabad seat fell vacant after incumbent MLA and BJP leader Atul Garg won the recently held Lok Sabha election and became a parliamentarian. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The chief minister, who was in the city on Friday to strategise for the upcoming bypoll, spoke to party leaders at Hindi Bhawan.Media persons did not have entry to the venue.

“The CM said that all the senior party leaders, present and former elected representatives, among others, should take responsibility of at least one booth and strengthen it. Overall, we have about 502 booths for the Ghaziabad assembly seat. He also asked them to conduct small meetings with public to connect with voters on a regular basis and also asked workers to publicise the policies of the government,” said Mayank Goel, vice-president, BJP- West.

The Ghaziabad seat fell vacant after incumbent MLA and BJP leader Atul Garg won the recently held Lok Sabha election and became a parliamentarian.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all five assembly seats of Sahibabad, Loni, Ghaziabad, Modinagar and Muradnagar in the 2022 assembly elections.

The BJP functionaries said the party has about 30 different cells for farmers, educationists, lawyers, SC/STs, and women, among other sections of society.

“The CM asked the cells to become active and connect with their target voters. This way, he said, a large number of voters can be reached and they can further influence other voters. He gave a target that the party candidate should secure a win by a margin of at least 80% votes,” Goel said.

Pradeep Chaudhary, BJP city unit spokesperson, said the CM directed that work for bypoll should start immediately.

During the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, BJP was reduced to 33 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. The INDIA bloc partners, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, made huge inroads and secured 37 and six seats, respectively.

“The BJP and its leaders know that they have lost base in UP during the Lok Sabha elections. They were vying for 70-80 seats in UP, but ended up with only 33 seats. There are many seats where our alliance candidates lost by a slim margin. In Ghaziabad, the two parties will continue to fight in alliance against the BJP and our ground work has also started. We are focusing on strengthening our local setup,” said Vinit Tyagi, district president, Congress.

In all, 10 seats in UP will go to bypolls which is expected to be held after the festival season.