The western Uttar Pradesh belt is witnessing hectic political activities as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a massive outreach campaign in the area where polling for the assembly elections will be held in the first two phases on February 10 and 14.
Leaving no stone unturned in its efforts, the BJP’s high voltage campaign has seen Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, party president J. P. Nadda, have addressed meetings and undertaken door to door campaigning in strongholds where the BJP had done pretty well in the 2017 assembly elections.
Farmers agitation and protest erupted a year ago mainly from western U.P. against the three controversial farm laws and the ire of the farmers was focussed on the BJP-led Union Government at the Centre. A sizeable chunk of Jats from the western U.P. belt were angry at the BJP over the farm laws.
Sensing the resentment, Amit Shah held a closed door meeting in the Capital with prominent Jat leaders at the residence of party MP Parvesh Verma, reminding them that the community had always supported the BJP and the party as well as the government was ready to redress their grievances.
While campaigning in Modinagar, Rajnath Singh echoed similar sentiments, appealing to the Jat community to remember the legacy of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, the tallest leader whom he considered his political guru and who always worked for the welfare of the farmers.
Amit Shah even extended an invitation to Jayant Chaudhary, the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief and the grandson of Chaudhary Charan Singh and son of former Union Minister Ajit Singh, saying he had fallen in the wrong company. Union Home Minister’s reference was to the tie up of RLD with Samajwadi Party. However, it was summarily rejected by Jayant Chaudhary who had publicly supported the farmers’ protest last year.
This time, the western U.P. will hold the key to the seat of power in Lucknow as during the first phase 58 seats will go to polls while in the second phase polling will be held in 55 assembly seats. Together, the first two phases will cover 20 districts in western U.P.
While important seats like Kairana, Shamli, Budhana, Charthawal, Muzaffar Nagar, Khatauli, Meerut, Loni, Muradnagar, Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Modi Nagar, Agra, Mathura, Aligarh and Hapur will be among 58 assembly seats going to polls on February 10, phase two voting will be held on February 14 in constituencies which include Saharanpur, Deoband, Najibabad, Nagina (SC), Barhapur, Dhampur, Moradabad, Rampur and others.
Western U.P. assembly seats also form the bulk of the sugarcane belt and are traditionally considered to be rather prosperous. The area will see a direct electoral contest between the BJP and SP-RLD combine with other parties like BSP and the Congress pitching in with their respective candidates.