LUCKNOW: It is believed that the road to power in Delhi passes through Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to the lower house of Parliament. Perhaps, this perception has pushed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to begin its spadework at least a year earlier in the state charting out a course for the big battle in 2024.
According to party insiders, Union Home Minister and BJP’s master strategist Amit Shah has taken the command of party’s strategy in UP for the 2024 electoral trial. He is likely to visit the state capital on January 16, a day after the conclusion of the inauspicious month called ‘Malmaas’ to kick start the saffron party’s campaign.
With the focus on those 14 of the 80 UP seats which the BJP had lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shah is likely to commence the party’s campaign by addressing two public rallies at Balrampur and Ambedkarnagar during his stay in UP in mid-January.
The ruling alliance (BJP and Apna Dal -S ) had won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections losing 16 seats to the opposition with 10 to BSP, five to SP and the lone seat of Rae Bareli to Indian National Congress.
However, it managed to wrest Rampur and Azamgarh from SP in the bypoll held in June 2022. Notably, the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in alliance.
The remaining 14 seats from western to eastern UP include Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina(SC), Moradabad, Sambhal, Amroha, Mainpuri, Rae Bareli, Ambedkarnagar, Shravasti, Lalganj (SC), Ghosi, Jaunpur and Ghazipur.
According to party sources, the BJP had held a high-level meeting in Hyderabad, recently, where party leaders stressed strengthening the grass root network, primarily at the Mandal and booth level following which a batch of ‘Vistaraks’ have been deployed in all 14 Lok Sabha seats.
Notably, the BJP and its allies had walked away with 73 of 80 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Moreover, there are certain seats where the BJP central leadership is not fully satisfied with the performance of the sitting MP, claim the sources.
As per the party insiders, Amit Shah will be visiting the state frequently covering both the eastern and western regions to lay out the party strategy for 2024.
Meanwhile, BJP's national general secretary (organisation), BL Santosh and vice-president Radha Mohan Singh, who arrived in Lucknow on Monday on a two-day visit to the state capital took stock of the party's preparedness for upcoming civic polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The central leaders concluded their visit on Tuesday by giving titbits on upcoming civic polls, MLC elections and the battle of 2024.
Moreover, during a two-day stay of the central leaders, discussions were also held over the partial revamp of the saffron party's state unit in near future.
As per the party sources, Santosh voted for changes in party organisation as per the need. In this quest, five leaders including AK Sharma, Dayashankar Singh, JPS Rathore, Babay Rani Maurya and Narendra Kashyap, who were inducted into the Yogi 2.0 cabinet, may be relieved from their organisational responsibilities.
During his two-day stay, Santosh held a series of meetings with state general secretaries, vice presidents, frontal organisations' chiefs, regional presidents, ministers and other senior leaders of the party. In the meetings, the discussions mainly revolved around how to go about the civic polls and 14 Lok Sabha seats under focus.