BJP and Cong looking for cadres to get maximum seats from UP

With the next general elections scheduled for next year, top leaders of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and Congress are gearing up to boost the cadres to notch up the maximum number of seats from Uttar Pradesh. Interestingly, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Sant Kabir Nagar to blow the election bugle, national presidents of both the BJP and Congress are set to tour the state later this week. While BJP chief Amit Shah will try to gauge people’s mood and boost the party’s prospect by visiting PM Modi’s constituency Varanasi and adjoining districts, Rahul Gandhi will be in his Parliament constituency Amethi and adjoining districts for two days and galvanise the cadre. In the 2009 general elections, Congress scooped the maximum seats by winning its pocketburroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli, and also Pratapgarh, Faizabad, Bahraich, Gonda, Barabanki, Unnao, Kushinagar, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Dumriyaganj, Shrawasti, Maharajganj and Dharaura. Senior Congress leaders confirmed that Rahul would be on a two-day visit to Amethi from July 4 during which he would meet workers and attend several programmes. Gandhi will also visit the family of a Muslim farmer, who died at a government procurement centre while waiting for four days in scorching heat to sell his produce in May. “The death of farmers pointed towards apathetic attitude of the state government. The farmer died waiting for days to sell his produce. But no BJP leader ever visited his home,” Congress MLC Deepak Singh said.

The Congress president will also hold discussions with select activists over issues related to the party and other developments at Fursatganj under Tiloi Assembly segment on July 4. “In the evening, Gandhi will meet a delegation of small traders at Gauriganj and spend the night at the party office in Gauriganj. On July 5, the three-time Amethi MP will meet a group of farmers in Tala village on Amethi-Gauriganj road and listen to problems faced by them,” Singh said. Meanwhile, BJP sources confirmed that party president Amit Shah will be in PM’s constituency Varanasi and also visit Mirzapur and Agra. 

“Shah will reach Varanasi on July 4 and try to feel the pulse of the people in the state in a meeting with Lok Sabha in-charges of Kashi, Gorakhpur and Awadh regions. Shah will also address a social media workers’ meet organised by BJP IT Cell and pass on ‘winning tips’ to workers,” said a senior BJP leader. “Anyone active on the social media can attend the meet. For that, prior registration will be done till Monday. Shah will be interacting with  participants,” head of BJP’s IT cell Sanjay Rai said. The meet assumes significance as the BJP will be using the social media to aggressively counter what he said was the Opposition’s propaganda. In Agra on July 5, Shah will attend an intellectuals’ meet and take feedback from Lok Sabha incharges. Shah will also review the performance of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s government amid talk of a reshuffle. The party suffered shock defeats in Yogi’s Gorakhpur constituency and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya’s Kaushambi seat as well as Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly bypolls.