Hero’s welcome awaits Shah in UP
LUCKNOW: Since being elevated as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief, seen as a reward for the spectacular saffron triumph in Uttar Pradesh under his leadership, Amit Shah would pay a two-day visit to the state from August 19.
Lucknow, where a grand felicitation awaits Shah on August 19, would be his first stopover followed possibly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi.
Shah would again return to the state three days later on August 23 for inaugurating the party’s state convention in Mathura.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh would be the chief guest at the concluding function of the state convention.
Immediately after the twoday state convention, the BJP would launch a special monthlong drive to enroll all those who had ‘come close’ to the BJP during the Lok Sabha campaign into the party fold.
The party has also lined up a series of meetings with the BJP’s chief strategist. “The list of partymen wanting to personally meet and greet Shah is swelling by the day. It would be impossible for him to meet everyone. So he may meet party cadre in groups,” a BJP leader said.
The BJP would be holding a workers’ meet in Lucknow on August 19, during which Shah is expected to be felicitated for what UP BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak described as ‘achieving the impossible.’
The reference obviously is as much for the BJP winning 71 out of 80 seats in UP (its ally Apna Dal won two making it 73/80 show) as it is for the decimation of the UP’s two powerful regional players, the ruling Samajwadi Party and the main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Though upcoming assembly elections in several states too would be high on Shah’s agenda, the BJP chief has already indicated to the cadre that he would like the by-polls to 12 assembly segments and one Lok Sabha seat in UP to be taken seriously.