Yogi holds meeting as party mulls names, high voltage campaign

YOGI HELD A MEETING WITH STATE BJP CHIEF AFTER WHICH MINISTERS WERE TASKED WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEATS DUE FOR BY-POLLS

LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership is busy considering names of possible candidates for the eight assembly seats in the state, bypolls to which are likely to be held soon. The party is also planning a ‘high voltage’ campaign in these by-poll seats with chief minister Yogi Adityanath expected to be the lead campaigner along with other ministers and BJP functionaries, party leaders say.

On Sunday, Yogi held a meeting with state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh at the former’s residence after which ministers were tasked with responsibility for seats due for by-polls.

“As soon as the by-polls are announced, the chief minister would be canvassing for party in all 8 seats,” a BJP leader said adding that several ministers would also campaign for the party. The main opposition SP which held two of the 8 by-polldue seats – Malhani in Jaunpur and Suar in Rampur - is also desperate to make an impression in these mini-polls. Of the two seats, the BJP is specially eyeing Suar seat, considered a bastion of SP’s Rampur MP Azam Khan. The seat was won by Azam’s son Abdullah in 2017 UP polls but his subsequent disqualification paved the way for by-poll.

The BJP has decided to task state’s law minister Brajesh Pathak and party lawmaker Vijay Kashyap with the responsibility of Suar seat while it has given its backward classes welfare minister Anil Rajbhar the responsibility of Malhani seat in Jaunpur. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya has been made in-charge of Ghatampur assembly seat while the other deputy CM Dinesh Sharma has been asked to look after Firozabad’s Tundla seat. For the 6 bypolldue seats held by the BJP, the party has named ministers Laxminarayan Chaudhary and Baldev Aulakh for Amroha, ministers Ashok Kataria, Suresh Rana and Kapil Dev Agarwal for Bulandshahr, ministers Surya Pratap Shahi and Satish Dwivedi would look after Deoria while ministers Mahendra Singh and Suresh Pasi would look after Bangarmau seat.