The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Uttar Pradesh unit is battle-ready to win all the 12 Assembly seats where bypolls will be held soon. Of these seats, one each was held by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party while the rest were with the BJP.
A high-level meeting was held at the BJP state headquarters in Lucknow on Sunday night, in which party leaders decided to appoint ministers and office-bearers for supervising the bypolls in each Assembly constituency, selection of candidates, overseeing campaigning and related issues.
The meeting was attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP state chief and Union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJP state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal and leaders of districts where the bypolls will be held.
On Monday, sources in the BJP said that the meeting decided to expedite the membership drive and booth management in the 12 Assembly constituencies with focus on caste equations.
The sources said that it was decided that Maurya and BJP state vice-president Ranjana Upadhyaya would be in-charge of Govindnagar (Kanpur) constituency while Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and minister Devendra Chaudhary would oversee Rampur seat.
Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma and BJP state vice-president BL Verma will oversee the bypolls in Tundla (Ferozabad), Panchayati Raj Minister Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh and BJP secretary YP Singh in Gangoh (Saharanpur), Sugar Development Minister Suresh Rana and BJP vice-president Purshottam Khandelwal in Iglas (Aligarh), Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh and BJP secretary Prakash Pal in Manikpur (Chitrakoot), UP minister Raghvendra Pratap Singh Dhunni and BJP general secretary Ashok Kataria in Hamirpur Assembly constituencies.
Medical Education Minister Ashutosh Tandon and BJP general secretary Vidyasagar Sonkar will over see the bypolls in Lucknow Cantonment, Forest Minister Dara Singh Chauhan and BJP general secretary Govind Narain Shukla in Zaidpur (Barabanki), Law Minister Brijesh Pathak and Santosh Singh in Jalalpur (Ambedkar Nagar).
Social Welfare Minister Rampati Ram Shastri, Minister of State Upendra Tiwari along with Minister of State Anup Gupta have been made in-charge of Balha (Bahraich) constituency and Transport Minister Swatantradev Singh and BJP secretary Tribayank Tripathi of Pratapgarh.
The Hamirpur Assembly seat was declared vacant after sitting BJP member Ashok Singh Chandel was convicted in a murder case by the Allahabad High Court.
The other 11 Assembly seats fell vacant after their members resigned on getting elected to the Lok Sabha recently.
In 2019 LS polls, BJP had fielded four ministers and five legislators. Two legislators of Samajwadi Party and one each of Bahujan Samaj Party and Apna Dal also contested the Lok Sabha elections.
UP minister and MLA from Lucknow Cantonment, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, was elected to Lok Sabha from Allahabad, minister and MLA from Govindnagar, Satyadev Pachauri, from Kanpur and minister SP Singh Baghel from Agra (Reserved) seat.
Besides, BJP MLA from Manikpur Assembly seat, RK Singh Patel, was elected to Lok Sabha from Banda, BJP MLA from Iglas Rajvir Singh Valmiki Diler from Hathras and BJP legislator from Zaidpur, Upendra Rawat, from Barabanki.
Similarly, BJP legislator from Gangoh, Pradeep Chaudhary won the Kairana Lok Sabha seat, MLA from Balha, Akshaywar Lal Gaud, the Bahraich seat.
SP MLA from Rampur Mohammad Azam Khan, won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat, BSP legislator Ritesh Pandey the Ambedkar Nagar seat and Apna Dal MLA from Pratapgarh Sangam Lal Gupta, the Pratapgarh seat on BJP ticket.
