NEW DELHI: BJP has divided Uttar Pradesh into five regions for campaigning during the Assembly polls next year. Party leaders such as Ram Shankar Katheria, Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Kalraj Mishra and Uma Bharti will be in charge of each of these regions. Besides, BJP is positioning newly-inducted MoS in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal as a star campaigner in the Allahabad-Mirzapur-Phulpur belt, comprising a sizable number of Kurmi voters.
BJP leaders will hold four to five rallies in each region. PM Narendra Modi is slated to address 10-12 rallies. The state has 403 Assembly seats.
Katheria will get charge of the Braj region comprising Mathura, Agra, Hathras and Aligarh. He is well connected to his voters and has served for 13 years as a ‘pracharak’ in and around Agra.
Irani might have been shifted to a lesser important Ministry of Textile from the HRD Ministry, but the party is keen on leveraging her appeal in the Awadh region that comprises Pratapgarh, Raebareli, Amethi and Faizabad. She lost to Rahul Gandhi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Amethi, but her extensive visits to the region since then and her mass interaction programme has held her in good stead among the voters.
Four-time state party president and Union minister Mishra will handle the Terai region. He is an MP from Deoria and the party believes he will repeat the success of the 2014 polls. Mishra had won over the upper caste Brahmin and Rajput votes and had also succeeded in wooing Dalits and OBCs in the region.
Bharti will get charge of the Bundelkhand region and a chance to resurrect her career. The Jhansi MP wants to go back to her state and devote her life to the Ram Temple. The poll results will decide her future.
Abbas will get western Uttar Pradesh to galvanise the Muslim vote-bank. Naqvi and Culture and Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma could play a significant role. During the last Assembly elections, out of 77 seats in this region, Muslim candidates won 26.
Leaders such as Manoj Sinha could also be used to campaign in Ghazipur. Eastern Uttar Pradesh is a prime focus for the party, which has four Union ministers from there. Patel’s induction has bolstered BJP’s fortunes, especially in the Allahabad-Mirzapur belt, from where she comes. She belongs to the Kurmi community, which comprises five to six per cent of the electorate in the state. Her campaigning could give the party an edge in the region, sources said.
Party president Amit Shah is holding a rally in Mau, now known as Maunath Bhanjan, on Saturday, where he is likely to announce an alliance with Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a small outfit with considerable influence on backward and Dalit voters in eastern Uttar Pradesh.