To give a boost to Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) campaign in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Union home minister Amit Shah will take part in meetings, dialogues and contact programs on Saturday, along with party chief Jagat Prakash Nadda, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh and other leaders.
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These leaders will also hold discussions on the future strategy for the BJP, according to Hindustan Times' sister publication Livehindustan.
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Shah will also visit Kairana (in Shamli district) in western UP where he will hold door-to-door campaign, news agency ANI reported. The BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, eldest daughter of late Hukum Singh who had won the seat several times, from Kairana.
The home minister will then go to Meerut where he will hold a meeting with intellectuals, the ANI report further said.
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Nadda, meanwhile, will hold a meeting with the officials of Bijnor, Nagina and Muzaffarnagar at JBS Resort Bypass Road, Bijnor, at 1.30pm. After this, he will reach Gajraula at 3pm and hold a meeting with office bearers in Amroha, Moradabad and Meerut Vidhan Sabha at the residence of MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar.
{{/usCountry}}Nadda, meanwhile, will hold a meeting with the officials of Bijnor, Nagina and Muzaffarnagar at JBS Resort Bypass Road, Bijnor, at 1.30pm. After this, he will reach Gajraula at 3pm and hold a meeting with office bearers in Amroha, Moradabad and Meerut Vidhan Sabha at the residence of MP Kanwar Singh Tanwar.
{{/usCountry}}Chief minister Adityanath will campaign in Aligarh and Bulandshahr. He will hold meeting with a group of eminent citizens in Aligarh. At 2pm, Adityanath will undertake a door-to-door campaign in Bulandshahr. Parties have not been holding any rallies in Uttar Pradesh due to a ban imposed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the wake of rising Covid-19 cases.
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Western Uttar Pradesh is a crucial region for BJP as it involves about 108 seats and the party had done well in the previous assembly election. The party had won 83 seats in the region in 2017 and the its leaders are confident of repeating the performance.
The BJP swept Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, winning 78 out of 80 seats. It won over 300 seats in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and 62 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Amit Shah was the party chief.
Shah has been again given the task of overseeing the party's campaign for upcoming assembly elections as he is known to have good understanding of caste dynamics in the state and knows key workers personally across constituencies.
Elections to 403 member Uttar Pradesh assembly will be held in seven phases. The first phase of polls will be held in parts of Western Uttar Pradesh on February 10.