While the top leadership of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are busy campaigning for the Assembly elections, especially in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the BJP in Uttar Pradesh has indicated it is already in poll mode for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
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Faced with the possibility of taking on the combined force of the two regional forces in 2019, the BJP has started campaigning in the State.
Bypoll loss
The BJP secured 71 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in U.P. in 2014; its ally Apna Dal got two, making the total 73. However, the crucial bypolls in Kairana, Phulpur and Gorakhpur were lost by the party when the BSP provided outside support to the SP.
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On Saturday, the BJP has planned to take out bike rallies in all 80 parliamentary constituencies, in what is believed to be a show of strength. The bikes will all converge at the LS headquarters in each constituency.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will also participate in the rally and will be on a bike, said BJP U.P. State general secretary Govind Narayan Shukla. Mr. Adityanath will lead the rally in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha seat.
The party has named the bike rally ‘Kamal Sandesh’. It has instructed all MPs, MLAs, MLCs and other office-bearers to participate in it. BJP State spokesperson Chandramohan said the rally was to highlight the “development work done under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
Asked why take out the rally now, as the Lok Sabha elections are many months away, Mr. Chandramohan said the bugle for 2019 has already been sounded in U.P.
Meanwhile, BSP chief Mayawati and SP president Akhilesh Yadav are campaigning in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
The BJP also plans a 15-day padyatra in all 403 Assembly segments of U.P. from December 1, under which 150 party workers will cover 150 km in each Assembly, said State general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.