BJP DEPLOYS FORMER SP LEADERS IN MAINPURI

LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deployed several former Samajwadi Party leaders-turned-BJP men to target the state’s main opposition party in Mainpuri where the Lok Sabha bypoll will be held on December 5. The SP hasn’t lost the seat since 1996.

The BJP’s counter-strategy comes as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle, Shivpal Yadav, a lawmaker from Jaswant Nagar, has been campaigning for SP candidate Dimple Yadav, Akhilesh’s wife.

Jaswant Nagar is one of the five assembly segments of Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat. “There are no bastions now. On December 8, counting day, the BJP will create history here,” said UP BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary while campaigning for the party candidate Raghuraj Shakya in Jaswant Nagar.

Union minister SP Singh Baghel, a former SP lawmaker-turned-BJP leader, has been campaigning in Mainpuri, especially the Karhal assembly segment. Simlarly, former SP leader-turned-UP BJP minister Jaivir Singh has been campaigning in Jaswant Nagar from where the SP has won continuously.

“If anybody thinks there is any place which can be considered anyone’s bastion, then one is sadly mistaken,” Chaudhary said while addressing a booth-level meeting of the party in Jaswant Nagar on Wednesday.

“Earlier, SP leaders would say that their party chief doesn’t campaign in bypolls. Now, he is not only campaigning but going door-to-door, too, and even welcomed his uncle by making him a star campaigner, something which he never did so far. There was a time when the SP and the BSP would describe some constituencies as their bastions. Now, all that is a thing of the past,” Chaudhary said.