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In run-up to UP polls, BJP makes fresh campaign pitch with women politicians
Union minister Anurag Thakur went campaigning door-to-door with Aparna Yadav, Aditi Singh and Priyanka Maurya. All three women politicians have joined the BJP recently.
Union minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur, who has been coining interesting slogans to target the main opposition Samajwadi Party, on Sunday made a fresh campaign pitch with women politicians who have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from other parties recently.
After standing at the busy Hazratganj crossing with five-member teams holding placards with slogans like women’s safety written on them, Anurag Thakur again took to the streets on a cold Sunday afternoon. This time, he was with a delegation of women leaders, three of whom have made news by joining the BJP.
The delegation included Aparna Yadav, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s sister-in-law who recently joined the BJP in Delhi, Congress’ rebel lawmaker from Rae Bareli Aditi Singh who joined the BJP recently, and Priyanka Maurya, who till a few days ago was on the posters of the Congress’ ‘Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon (I am a woman and can accept a challenge)’ campaign.
Holding placards with women safety slogans written on them, Anurag Thakur and the women politicians held door-to-door campaigns in Hazratganj and Lalbagh areas before arriving at the BJP office.
Aditi Singh, named as the BJP candidate from Rae Bareli, is among the 26 women to have found a place in the list of 195 candidates that the party has declared in four tranches so far. Aditi has been fielded from the same Rae Bareli (Sadar) seat from where she won in the 2017 UP polls.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had launched a women-centric poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, declaring 40 per cent tickets to women candidates.
The BJP is also up against a spirited Samajwadi Party (SP) and is seeking to target it on issues of women’s safety.
The participation of women voters has steadily increased in UP, from 47 per cent in the 60s to around 60 per cent in 2019, the reason why all parties are wooing women, say experts.
There is a buzz about the Congress mulling fielding Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Rae Bareli. Through Aditi, the BJP has targeted the Congress leader and her party’s pitch on ensuring women’s safety. Priyanka Maurya, too, has left the Congress after mocking the party’s campaign “Ladki Hoon, Lad Sakti Hoon”. She has accused the party of denying her a ticket.
In Aparna Yadav’s presence, Anurag Thakur hit out at the previous SP government for faring poorly on women’s security during its tenure.
Aparna Yadav herself kept gesturing at her placard that read “Bahu beti suraksha aur adhikar (safety and share to daughter and daughter-in-law).”
“It is the BJP where both Mulayam Singh Yadav’s bahu Aparna Yadav or Swami Prasad Maurya’s daughter Sanghmitra Maurya feel safe,” Thakur has been stating.
Swami Prasad Maurya, the OBC leader that BJP imported from the BSP ahead of the 2017 UP polls, has now walked out of the BJP and joined the SP. But his daughter Sanghmitra continues to be a BJP MP from Badaun.
The BJP has rolled out Kamal clubs and has entered the campaign with slogans like “Atmanirbhar naari hamara sankalp, ujjawal bhavishya yahin vikalp (committed to making women self-dependent, this is the only alternative to a brighter future)”.
BJP leaders like Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the party’s state chief Swatantra Dev have all been talking of women’s safety.
