Mission 2019: BJP, Congress presidents target UP

Lucknow: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded election bugle from Maghar in Sant Kabir Nagar last week, now BJP and Congress presidents will be in Uttar Pradesh to feel the pulse of people and party workers for the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

While Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be on a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi from July 4, during which he is likely to meet party workers and attend several programmes, BJP president Amit Shah will be in Varanasi, Mirzapur and Agra on the same dates.

Gandhi will visit the family of a muslim farmer who died in May while waiting to sell his produce at a government procurement centre.

“The death of farmers showed apathetic attitude of state government. He died waiting for days to sell his produce. Rahulji will certainly visit his house and meet his family members,” Congress MLC Deepak Singh said, adding that not a single BJP leader has visited the farmer’s home. According BJP leaders, Shah will try to feel the pulse of the state in a meeting with Lok Sabha in-charges of Kashi, Gorakhpur and Awadh regions on July 4.

Shah will also address a social media workers’ meet organised by the party’s IT cell and give “winning tips” to the workers, a senior BJP leader said. “Anyone active on social media can attend the meeting. For that, prior registration will continue till today. The party chief will be interacting with the participants,” head of BJP’s IT cell Sanjay Rai said.

The meet assumes significance as the BJP would be using social media platforms to “aggressively” counter the opposition’s propaganda against it. In Agra on July 5, Shah will attend intellectuals meet and take feedback from Lok Sabha in-charges.

For 2019, BJP does not want to leave any stone unturned as in 2014, it was Uttar Pradesh from where the party got the maximum 73 seats (including two of Apna Dal) out of the total 80 seats. Shah will also be reviewing the performance of Yogi Adityanath government’s ministers as there are talks that the department of some of them might be changed after the visit.

The party has witnessed humiliating defeat in Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya’s Kaushambi and also in Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly bypolls.

After sounding poll bugle from Maghar (Sant Kabir Nagar), PM Modi is likely to visit UP again on July 14-15, during which he will be attending public meetings in Azamgarh and his constituency, Varanasi, besides laying foundation of Purvanchal expressway.

The PM’s programme is under finalisation and preparations are on for it. Azamgarh parliamentary constituency is represented by senior Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who will this time contest from Mainpuri.

During his Maghar visit on June 28, PM Modi had slammed the opposition parties, saying some parties want “unrest” by creating doubts in the minds of the people for “political gains” but were cut off from ground reality.

The PM had also taken a swipe at the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party stating that those who always talk of ‘samajwad’ and ‘bahujan’ are “extremely selfish” and they don’t see the welfare of society but only the welfare of themselves and their families.