Intensifying its hunt to retain power at Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off BJP ’s poll campaign trail for UP West with a public meeting in Amroha and Saharanpur. Earlier, PM Modi has addressed a rally in Meerut on March 28.
The Uttar Pradesh West, a popularly known as ‘Sugar belt’ of the state has always benefitted the saffron party because of its caste dynamics. The Parliamentary Seats of Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Meerut among others were bagged by BJP with a huge margin in 2014 General Elections.
The region has a minority population that makes it highly sensitive and polarized.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has retained all its sitting MPs in the region, except Mriganka Singh, Daughter of Late MP Hukum Singh from Kairana. Mriganka lost to Tabassum Hasan in 2018 byelections of Kairana Parliamentary Seat. The by-polls were necessitated after the death of BJP’s sitting MP Hukum Singh.
It was BJP’s success in the Uttar Pradesh that helped it to reach 71 mark in the state on the backdrop of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in a highly sensitive region.
But it’s not just the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party who is focusing on this region, all other political fronts of the state has also planned a series of meetings for the highly polarised segment of the state.
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The BSP–SP-RLD combine is also set to intensify its poll campaign in Saharanpur on 7 April. The Mahagathbandhan has planned 11 joint rallies in the state. The UP’s Grand Alliance will address rallies in Badaun, Mainpuri, Rampur, Firozabad, and Kannauj.
Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi has on Friday held a massive roadshow in Ghaziabad in support of party candidate Dolly Sharma who is pitched against General VK Singh for Lok Sabha Polls 2019. Priyanka will visit the state on April 8 again and will hold three big rallies in Saharanpur, Shamli, and Bijnor for Imran Masood, Harendra Malik who is pitched against Tabassum Hasan and Pradeep Choudhary.
Whether the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party would manage to retain the power at Centre is much depend on its performance in Uttar Pradesh that sends the highest 80 parliamentarians to the lower of the parliament.
General Elections are to begin from April 11 and would spread on Seven Phases starting from April 11 to May 19. Uttar Pradesh which has a total of 80 seats will go to polls in all seven phases. 8 Parliamentary Seats of UP, the west part, will go polls on April 11.
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