BJP packs off Hindi-fluent netas to UP

THE MINISTERS ARE SUPPLEMENTING THE EFFORTS BY PM MODI WHO WILL ADDRESS MORE RALLIES IN STATE

As the Uttar Pradesh election enters the final lap, the BJP is giving it all.

Almost all ministers who can speak Hindi have been packed off to Uttar Pradesh, where the party is trying to replicate its performance of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and regain prominence in state politics after being sidelined by regional players.

On poll duty, four senior ministers — JP Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani and Narendra Singh Tomar — were all staying in a luxury hotel in Lucknow two days ago, sources said. Voting was on for 53 seats, including those in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in the fourth phase on Thursday.

The ministers are supplementing the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has increased the number of poll rallies he would address in India’s largest state. The competition is stiff and stakes high.

The ruling Samjwadi Party has for the first time gone into polls with a partner, the Congress. Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is keen to make a comeback in the state.

Home minister Rajnath Singh, who hails from Uttar Pradesh and seen as a potential chief ministerial candidate, has been crisscrossing the state for several weeks now. He had a busy Wednesday as he visited Tarabganj, Sahajnava, Ghanghata, Isouli and Sultanpur among other places. He, too, has been camping in Lucknow.

Small industries minister Kalraj Mishra, a prominent Brahmin face from Uttar Pradesh, was busy campaigning in Jalalpur, Kapilvastu and Mahadeva.

While only a few senior ministers campaigned in Goa, Uttarakhand and Punjab, which voted earlier this month, UP is a different ball game. A sense of urgency is palpable and the party is mobilising all its resources. It even shifted its polls cell, operated by mid-rung leaders, from Delhi to the state capital Lucknow.

“Only one senior person has stayed back in Delhi. Everyone else is in Lucknow,” a source said.

For the BJP, the outcome in UP will decide the direction its government will take at the Centre. A win in the bellwether state will embolden it to go ahead with economic reforms. The party wants to put the bruising defeat in Bihar behind it .