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UP Polls: Amit Shah to woo Jat-dominated Baghpat voters, release BJP manifesto today
The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls in seven phases.
Union home minister and senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah will hold a rally in western Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat on Sunday days ahead of the high voltage Assembly election in the state. The rally will cover Chhaprauli, Baraut and Baghpat assembly seats which will go to the polls in the first phase of election on February 10. He will also hold a public meeting in Amroha district.
The 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls in seven phases. After February 10 voting, further rounds of polling will take place on February 14, February 20, February 23, February 27, March 3 and March 7. The votes will be counted on March 10.
According to a report by ANI, during the Baghpat rally, Shah would attempt to convince the Jat community voters who mostly dominate the area. A large number of Jat farmers had participated in the year-long agitation against the Centre's, now withdrawn, three laws in Delhi.
Earlier this month, Shah held a meeting with more than 200 Jat leaders from the region at BJP MP Parvesh Verma's residence in New Delhi. During the meeting, Shah had tried to draw similarities between the community leaders and the BJP, saying "There are some similarities between you (Jat leaders) and us (BJP). You have fought with Mughals for around 650 years. Just like, Jats do not think only about themselves, but always prioritise nation's security, BJP also has the same ideology," according to ANI report.
Meanwhile, before the rallies, Shah will release the party’s manifesto in the Lucknow office in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Union ministers Anurag Thakur and Dharmendra Pradhan, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev and senior minister Suresh Khanna, who heads the manifesto committee, would be present at the manifesto release
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has held back its manifesto with party chief Akhilesh Yadav saying that he has decided to wait for the BJP to declare their manifesto first.
The Congress has already declared a women-centric manifesto for the polls, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) does not come out with a manifesto.
