Farmers Movement Archive

Nadda election blitz from Yogi backyard

Lucknow: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah setting the tone for BJP’s election campaign in the build-up to forthcoming state elections from the politically crucial east UP region, it’s the turn of BJP national president J P Nadda to set party’s gargantuan poll machine rolling in Purvanchal from the political backyard of CM Yogi Adityanath — Gorakhpur. The BJP boss is scheduled to reach Gorakhpur on November 22 to hold a meeting with booth-level presidents from 10 districts of east UP, including Mau, Azamgarh, Ballia, Deoria, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, Basti and Siddharthnagar. Sources said, around 27,000 booth-level functionaries, assembly seat conveners and divisional in-charges have been asked to attend the crucial meeting, which could potentially lay a formal template of BJP’s electoral campaign to take on political rivals. All top BJP organisational leaders, including party vice-president Radha Mohan Singh, UP election in charge and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, CM Yogi, state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal are expected to attend the meeting. BJP’s Gorakhpur president Yudhistir Singh Saithwar told TOI the party chief is expected to hold a review of booth-level activity undertaken in past few months. “The attestation of booth-level committees that forms the basic unit of the party’s organisational is likely to be assessed by the party chief. He will give further directions before the party scales up its grassroots electoral spade work,” a senior BJP leader said. Nadda reaching Gorakhpur, the political nerve centre of Purvanchal, attains significance even as the Opposition, mainly the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party flexes muscle to take on the saffron outfit, especially in the east UP region. BJP also faces the fractious ally turned rival, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who has allied “unconditionally” with the SP to sabotage BJP’s bid to return to power. Ostensibly concentrated in the east UP region, the Rajbhar community is being wooed by both BJP and SP as part of their electoral calculations. BJP sources said, the party plans to set out on a strategic note from east UP before launching a full-fledged campaign across the state. This will include organising ‘yatras’ in different organisational regions in coming days. BJP’s deft attempt to consolidate its position in east UP comes in the backdrop of the party’s worries in the restive west UP region, which remained affected by the farmer stir against the three new farm laws of the Centre. The Lakhimpur violence, which saw the killing of eight persons including four farmers, has only added to the worries of the BJP. Sources said the party was in no mood to relent and sought to chart out an adept strategy to take on the opposition which has been harping on a potential anti-incumbency against the BJP.

The Times of India

2021-11-19

Lucknow