Amit Shah to stay in villages to read UP voters' mood

Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah will now stay the night in villages in Uttar Pradesh and establish a direct contact with the voters.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has already made a beginning with Pratapgarh, where he spent the night in a government school earlier this week.

Party sources said that Mr Shah has given the go-ahead for his programme which will be finalised after the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Mr Shah is likely to being his tour from western UP since the two byelections on Kairana Lok Sabha and Bijnore Assembly seat are scheduled to take place on May 28. Mr Shah, apparently, wants to get a first-hand feedback from the rural interiors of the state by spending time in villages and, particularly, in the homes of dalits and OBCs. “The party's campaign for 2019 will be on a more personalised scale and after the BJP president, other senior leaders will also spend a night in villages and interact with the people,” said a BJP functionary. Mr Amit Shah is said to be “upset and somewhat confused” over the contradictory reports he has been receiving from the party's network. While the party workers blame the ministers, MPs and legislators for not taking adequate interest, the ministers, MPs and legislators blame the bureaucracy and the government for not been responsive to the people’s issues.

Those in the government blame the party organisation for not carrying forward the achievements of the Central and state governments. The BJP president, according to sources, will spend two nights in each of the seven organisational regions known as “prant”, including Paschim, Avadh, Kashi, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Bundelkhand, and Braj Prant. He will take feedback about the government's functioning and the involvement of party workers in solving problems of the people related to availability of power, water, fertiliser and law and order.