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UP elections: BJP focuses on the west, Amit Shah holds drive
The Union home minister offered prayers at the Banke Bihari Temple in Mathura before starting his door-to-door campaign in Mathura as part of the BJP’s outreach programme.
Days ahead of the assembly elections, Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday held a door-to-door campaign in politically key western Uttar Pradesh, where the party is bracing for a strong fight with its rivals in the region’s 143 seats.
Shah, who arrived in Vrindavan during the day, offered prayers at Banke Bihari Temple in the city before starting his door-to-door campaign in Mathura as part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s outreach programme.
Addressing voters, the Union minister said that the results of the upcoming polls will decide the fate of the nation in the coming years.
“Voters should understand that this 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election is not merely an election to elect MLAs, ministers or chief ministers, but it will decide the fate of the nation in the coming years. Voters in the state have to decide if they want to vote for an individual and a party or for the state and the nation,” he said in Mathura.
The western part of Uttar Pradesh is a significant battleground in view of the concentration of farmers, who are widely seen as being upset with the ruling party over the farm laws and the protests over them.
Shah’s door-to-door appeal to voters in the region also came a day after he met key leaders of the Jat community, whose support is seen as key in the region, and exhorted them to back the BJP in the polls. The influential community had backed the party in 2014, 2017, and 2019, but grew distant from it over the farm protests.
The Union minister stressed that his party has run the government in a transparent manner and even political adversaries cannot accuse them of corruption.
“The BJP regime led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath-led government in the state have cared for all. The opposition leaders, including (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi and (Samajwadi Party chief) Akhilesh Yadav, cannot even dare to question the BJP government on the issue of corruption,” he said.
Attacking the previous Samajwadi Party-led government over the law and order situation, Shah said: “Wasn’t there a goonda raj? Didn’t the bahubalis (strongmen) trouble people? Weren’t the sisters and daughters humiliated?”
Shah also hit out at the SP and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for “working for specific castes” during their regime. “None of them drew the plan of all-round development of the state. It was done by the governments led by (PM) Narendra Modi and (CM) Yogi Adityanath,” he said.
“The BJP is not the party of a particular caste but the entire society,” he said, adding that in the 2017 assembly polls, people have rejected casteism and dynastic politics.
The minister’s remarks assume importance in the wake of several high-profile exits of top leaders belonging to other backward classes. The BJP hopes to hold on to the community that propelled it to an unprecedented victory in 2017.
Shah was accompanied by Uttar Pradesh energy minister Shrikant Sharma, the party’s sitting Mathura MLA, who is seeking re-election from the seat.
Hitting back, Congress state vice-president Upendra Singh accused Shah of misleading the masses by concealing the failure of the BJP at the Centre and in the state. “Why are BJP leaders not speaking about unemployment and inflation?” he asked.
“The masses are convinced that the BJP has distorted the communal harmony and they are now trying to mislead them,” Samajwadi Party leader Ramji Lal Suman said.
While the elections in the state are slated to be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7, polling in Mathura is scheduled for the first phase. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
