With the opposition not relenting on scaling down protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too has hardened its posture on the issue by lining up rallies by its top leaders in Uttar Pradesh.
In the state capital, the rally on January 21 will be addressed by chief Amit Shah.
BJP is looking to use Shah’s Lucknow rally in support of CAA to showcase “popular support” to the new law that seeks to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities in Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The first rally in the state would be held by union woman and child welfare minister Smriti Irani, also the Amethi MP. Irani would address the rally in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This would be followed by a bigger rally in Gorakhpur, chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s former Lok Sabha constituency on January 19. This rally would be addressed by former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
Next day union highways minister Nitin Gadkari would be in Kanpur where party is preparing for a massive rally. Two days later on January 22, defense minister Rajnath Singh, the Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow would be travelling to Meerut to address a big rally in this crucial and sensitive western UP region. Both Kanpur as well as Meerut had along with Aligarh reported maximum violence against the Citizenship Law.
{{/usCountry}}Next day union highways minister Nitin Gadkari would be in Kanpur where party is preparing for a massive rally. Two days later on January 22, defense minister Rajnath Singh, the Lok Sabha MP from Lucknow would be travelling to Meerut to address a big rally in this crucial and sensitive western UP region. Both Kanpur as well as Meerut had along with Aligarh reported maximum violence against the Citizenship Law.
{{/usCountry}}Another crucial western UP region, also the Dalit heartland of the state, is Agra where the party has decided to get its officiating chief JP Nadda to address a rally.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has already held two rallies in Gaya in Bihar and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. He has also been holding rallies on Citizenship Law across the state. Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar too was sent by the party to campaign in Saharanpur while UP’s deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya as well as Dinesh Sharma are also touring the state with the same purpose. UP ministers and BJP functionaries as well as lawmakers too are part of the campaign.