LUCKNOW: Union Home Minister and senior BJP poll strategist Amit Shah on Saturday hit the ground in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh by launching a door-to-door campaign in Kairana. Canvassing votes for party candidate Mriganka Singh, Shah reiterated the slogan of ‘abki baar 300 paar’ (this time beyond 300 seats).
The senior BJP leader also met a number of families which had returned to the town after migrating out due to threats from local criminals.
Candidate Singh, daughter of prominent Gurjar leader late Hukum Singh who represented the seat for four consecutive terms from 1996 to 2012, is locked in a straight contest with the Samajwadi Party candidate in Kairana.
In 2017, Mriganka Singh had lost the seat to SP’s Nahid Hassan, who has been repeated by the SP this year but is currently in jail in connection with a case under the Gangster Act. Consequently, Hassan’s sister, Iqra, has filed her nomination as an independent. She may contest as SP-supported candidate if Hassan fails to pass his nomination owing to his criminal antecedents.
Speaking to media persons in Kairana, Shah said he interacted with as many as 11 members of one Mittal family who informed him that they no longer lived in fear. He added that the family was forced to leave Uttar Pradesh earlier due to law and order situation.
“I can see the confidence in the people of UP. In the days to come, this is going to be the most developed state of India,” said Shah while heaping praise on CM Yogi Adityanath. “If law and order in UP has to be upheld, appeasement has to be ended, tradition of working for one caste has to be ended and robust development has to be taken forward,” he said.
Never said party’s CM face in UP, says Priyanka
A day after dropping a hint that she is party’s face in UP, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Saturday said she never said that she will be the party’s CM face and her reaction was out of irritation after being repeatedly asked about it.