Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Maurya will be among the star campaigners for the Phulpur Lok Sabha seat on which bypoll will be held on March 11.
The BJP does not wish to take any chances on the Phulpur seat which was won by the BJP for the first time in 2014. The party knows that Gorak-hpur, where a by-election will also be held on the same date, is comparatively an ‘easy’ seat and has been a BJP bastion for almost three decades. The Gorakhpur seat was vac-ated with the resignation of Yogi Adity-anath after he became CM and the Phulpur seat fell vacant after Mr Keshav Maurya resigned to become deputy chief minister.
Though the BJP has not yet announced its candidates on both the seats, the party is busy drawing up a strategy to retain the seats, particularly Phulpur. “Keshav Maurya was the BJP’s first winner from Phulpur and we are determined to retain the seat. Various leaders will start campaigning as soon as the candidate is announced. Gorakhpur has been a bastion of Yogi Adityanath and retaining the seat is not much of a problem,” said a senior party functionary.
The BJP will also hold rallies for Apna Dal (S) leader and Union minister Anupriya Patel who wields considerable influence over Kurmis.
Kurmis — an OBC community — are the single largest constituents of Phulpur and constitute over four lakh out of a total of more than 19 lakh voters.
UP BJP general secretary Govind Narain Shukla said, “We will contest the elections on the achievements of the Modi and Yogi governments and ‘Sabka saath, Sabka vikas’ will be the base of our campaign”.
He said that all party leaders and workers would participate in the by-elections and create awareness about the work done by the BJP governments.
