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PM Modi, Amit Shah on UP East tour from Feb 23 to counter Priyanka effect
To meet the challenge thrown by the newly appointed Congress general secretary and boost the morale of the BJP cadres, PM Modi and party president Amit Shah will be holding a series of public rallies and attend party functions between February 23 and March 3.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s appointment as the Congress general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East was termed as a gamechanger for the Lok Sabha elections by the party leaders. UP East is the BJP’s stronghold as the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi falls in the region, which also the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
To meet the challenge thrown by the newly appointed Congress general secretary and boost the morale of the BJP cadres, PM Modi and party president Amit Shah will be holding a series of public rallies and attend party functions between February 23 and March 3. The two leaders would be addressing rallies in Purvanchal, Kashi and Awadh during this period.
Shah will address the ‘Sahkari Sammelan’ in Lucknow on Saturday and follow it up with another function organised by the BJP in Gorakhpur, the bastion of Yogi Adityanath, who represented the parliamentary constituency five times before being sworn in as the UP chief minister in 2017.
The Gorakhpur event is being organised by the BJP Kisan Morcha. Shah will address the inaugural of the national convention of the morcha and is expected to list out the pro-farmer schemes and policies of the Narendra Modi government.
The BJP leaders including PM Modi have been speaking about various farmer-centric schemes including the PM Kisan, announced in the Union Budget earlier this month. The scheme provides for Rs 6,000 assured income assistance to farmers across the country. PM Modi has said the scheme will benefit more than 12 crore farmers having less than five acres of agricultural land.
The prime minister will closely follow the BJP president to woo farmers in Uttar Pradesh when he addresses the Kisan Morcha national convention on Sunday. The same day, PM Modi will transfer the first installment of Rs 2,000 to farmers under the PM Kisan scheme at an event in Gorakhpur. PM Modi will visit Prayagraj (Allahabad) to take a holy dip in the river during ongoing Kumbh ceremony.
On February 26, Shah will participate in a nationwide outreach programme of the BJP. Purvanchal is expected to be the special focus during Kamal Jyoti Sankalp, the BJP’s programme to reach out to all the beneficiaries of the central government’s schemes.
PM Modi will connect to an expected over 1 crore BJP workers spread across 10 lakh polling booths in the country through videoconferencing as the party tries to galvanise its cadre before the announcement of poll schedule for the Lok Sabha elections. The Election Commission is expected to announce the dates in March.
On March 3, the prime minister will inaugurate several development projects and hold a public rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi, the parliamentary constituency represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. This is the constituency, where Priyanka Gandhi has handled poll preparations for brother Rahul Gandhi in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
Priyanka Gandhi has a bigger responsibility for the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. After appointing Priyanka Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia as in-charges of Uttar Pradesh ahead of crucial polls, Rahul Gandhi had set a specific target for them saying that the “reviving the Congress organisation” is the top priority.
Her appointment as Congress general secretary in-charge of UP East is believed to have opened up the electoral battle in the state. Earlier, it was considered as a direct fight between the BJP-led NDA on one hand and the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance on the other. But, Priyanka Gandhi’s entry in UP East is expected to make the Lok Sabha elections a triangular contest in the state.
