The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its ally Apna Dal won all but seven of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. These seats are the strongholds of the Congress’ Nehru-Gandhi family and Samajwadi Party’s Yadav family. Starting from April 6 to April 14, Narendra Modi government ministers will spend time to ensure that the BJP wins these seats as well in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In addition, senior ministers and BJP leaders will fan out across the 115 Lok Sabha seats across India that the party believes it can win in 2019. The BJP had lost these seats in 2014. Most of these seats are in the northeastern states, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
In 2019, the BJP hopes to compensate for any losses that it could likely suffer in its catchment areas of the Hindi heartland, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh by consolidating its position in its traditionally weaker areas.
April 6 is the BJP’s foundation day, while April 14 is the birth anniversary of the architect of the Constitution BR Ambedkar.
Textiles Minister Smriti Irani will be visiting Amethi. She had contested against Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi from this seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Congress President Sonia Gandhi is an MP from Rae Bareli, and Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh will visit the constituency. Amethi and Rae Bareli were the only two seats that the Congress won in UP in 2014.
Similarly, ministers have been deputed to spend time in the five seats that the Samajwadi Party had won in 2014. Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav and BJP General Secretary Anil Jain will travel to Ferozabad and Mainpuri.
BJP President Amit Shah will be in Hyderabad. Home Minister Rajnath Singh will spend time in Kolkata South constituency, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Bengaluru (rural) and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari in Nazimabad.
The BJP’s hosting its national executive in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, on April 15 and 16. Odisha is another state where the party believes it can make gains in 2019. Of the state’s 21 seats, the BJP had won just one in 2014, with the Biju Janata Dal having bagged the rest. The BJP did well in the recently local body polls in Odisha.
"We will inform the masses about the central government's achievements, the GST legislation and our win in the recent assembly polls," BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav said. He will visit Madhepura, a stronghold of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.