BJP hoping for easy UP bypoll victory

Lucknow: The by-elections to two Lok Sabha seats, Gorakhpur and Phulpur, that are scheduled to be held next month, seem to be promising an easy win for the BJP.

The two seats had fallen vacant after the resignations of Yogi Adityanath from the Gorakhpur seat and Keshav Maurya from the Phulpur seat.

On both the seats, Opposition unity has fallen apart with the Congress and Samajwadi Party fielding their own candidates.

The BSP is not contesting the byelections but has not announced its support to either SP or Congress. Mayawati, in fact, has already ruled out any possibility of an alliance in Uttar Pradesh.

The divided Opposition clearly benefits the BJP but the party is clearly not adopting a laid back approach for the by-polls.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath is in Gorakhpur on a two- day visit and during this period, he will address rallies in all the five assembly seats  (Campierganj. Sahjanwa, Gorakhpur Sadar, Gorakhpur rural and Pipraich)  for the party candidate Upendra Dutt Shukla.

Though all five Assembly seats are held by the BJP, the chief minister will be meeting senior party leaders of each constituency to decide on the campaign. There are a total opf ten candidates in the fray for this seat.

Satyendra Sinha, the zonal media in-charge, said that booth workers have been asked to ensure the presence of voters from every village for the chief minister’s rallies.

In Phulpur, where the BJP candidate is Kaushalendra Singh Patel, a former Mayor of Varanasi, the BJP is working doubly hard. Deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya spent the weekend campaigning in the constituency and trying to soothe ruffle feathers. There have been voices of dissent over the candidature of Kaushalendra Singh Patel who is being perceived as an ‘outsider’.

Moreover, Patel’s ex-wife is also campaigning against him, accusing him of domestic violence and dowry harassment.

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, on Monday, expressed confidence that the BJP would sweep the March 11 by-polls on both the seats.

Party sources, meanwhile,  said that senior Union ministers, including Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Anupriya Patel, Gen V K Singh and state ministers, Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Siddhartha Nath Singh, Nand Gopal Nandi and senior party leaders will be campaigning in Phulpur.