Cong likely...

The Congress has 50 members in the Upper House and the opposition will need 123 votes to win in case there is an election for the post of deputy chairman. The ruling BJP has 69 members.

The support of other nonaligned parties — the BJD of Orissa, the two parties from Andhra Pradesh, TN‘S ruling AIADMK, and the TRS - is crucial. The Congress is also hoping the disgruntled NDA constituent Shiv Sena will support the NCP, whose four members in the Upper House are all fromt Maharashtra. If an NCP candidate is put up, state loyalty could serve as a bond. The NCP is also banking on the support of the AAP, the PDP of Jammu and Kashmir and even the JD(U), which has six members and is yet to announce its support to the BJP on the issue.

Monday’s meeting, to be chaired by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, will also chalk out the strategy for the upcoming monsoon session, beginning July 18. It will also take a call on the Telugu Desam Party’s appeal to all political parties to support its move to bring a no-confidence motion against the Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance government in the session. alone or for women too?” Modi said. It was a reference to some media reports which quoted Congress president Rahul Gandhi as saying at a meeting with Muslim intellectuals that the Congress “is a Muslim party.” The Congress has rubbished the reports as a rumour, with party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala saying the Congress “is the party of 132 crore Indians and will remain so forever”.

In a fresh outreach to Muslim women, Modi said triple talaq had been forbidden even in Islamic countries, but in India parties like the Congress were trying to stall the proposed law to ban the practice.

Responding to Modi’s speech, Congress chief spokesperson Surjewala said that fearful of defeat in next year’s general election, the PM was introducing poison in society. “With no respect for the office of the PM he holds, Modi tried to sway the country with lies using the name of Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh,” he said.

The Congress, on its official Twitter handle, said: “Prime Minister continues to lie to the people of India. His insecurities are getting the better of him. What are you scared of Modi ji?”

In Azamgarh, Modi struck a chord with the huge gathering as he began his speech in Bhojpuri, the dialect of the region.

Azamgarh has a sizeable Muslim population and is the parliamentary constituency of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. But with Yadav having announced his decision to contest from Mainpuri in 2019, the BJP is trying to wrest the seat from the SP and use the opportunity to consolidate its position in this belt. In the 2017 assembly polls, the BJP routed Akhilesh Yadav’s SP and Mayawati’s BSP almost everywhere else in the state, but it (the BJP) managed to win just one of Azamgarh’s nine assembly seats. The BSP won three and the SP five.

Tearing into SP and BSP, the PM accused the two UP regional giants of using ‘Samajwad’ and ‘Bahujan samaj’ for political gains. The two parties have joined hands to challenge the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections, wresting three key parliamentary seats from UP in by-polls this year.

“Those who didn’t even like looking at each other earlier are now chanting Modi, Modi. These people... and the dynasty parties now want to create obstacles in the path to development,” he said, adding, “We are working on not only highway but also waterway and airway. Ships sailing from Varanasi to Haldia will take this entire region ahead on the path of industrial development. Twelve airports are being developed under UDAN.”

The PM said Purvanchal Expressway will take the state, especially eastern UP, to greater heights. The 340-kilometre expressway will begin from Chand Sarai village on the Lucknow-sultanpur road (NH 731) and end at Haidariya village in Ghazipur district. The six-lane expressway will connect Lucknow, to Barabanki, Amethi, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Ambedkar Nagar, Azamgarh, Mau and Ghazipur districts.

Hours before the ceremony, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “These people have now made it a habit of inaugurating the inaugurated projects and laying foundation of already launched projects.” UP deputy CM Dinesh Sharma said the SP government had laid foundation stones and failed to complete projects.

Modi later left for Varanasi, where he launched projects worth ₹937 crore in his constituency, according to a PTI report. looking for more such names,” the first BJP leader said. Other parties too have followed the practice of wooing high-profile candidates from other professional backgrounds. In 1984, the actor Amitabh Bachchan fought from Allahabad on a Congress ticket, but his political career was short-lived as he quit before his term ended. More recently, Congress has also given tickets to the actor, Govinda, and the former cricket captain, Azharuddin, both of whom won.

Neelanjan Sircar, senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, said, “What strikes me about bringing in a celebrity is that if he wins, he is no threat to party leadership. He will not be, in any way, a meaningful dissenting way. So a party benefits in two ways - you can potentially pick the seat riding on his fame; and he is no threat because he has no organisational depth within the party. So it is an effective tool to centralise authority.”

(With inputs from Samarth Goyal)