Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday evening and chalked out the poll strategy of the Bharatiya Janata Party, holding a meeting with party leaders at the Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC).
The meeting was important as it was attended not only by party’s top state leaders and election campaigners but also by incharges of all 403 assembly constituencies of the state.
The visit of Amit Shah ahead of the upcoming assembly election in the state is considered as crucial for the party’s decisions, including finalisation of candidates for the 2022 elections in UP as political pundits are seeing this poll vital for deciding the political future of the nation as well in the coming years.
During his two-day visit, Amit Shah will try to study the political scenario in the state especially when parties like Samajwadi Party are leaving no stone unturned to regain power while Congress under the leadership of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati are trying to strengthen their parties.
The organisation of this party’s meeting in Purvanchal (eastern UP) is also important because the BJP had performed superbly well in the recent parliamentary and assembly polls, though it was once considered a bastion of the socialists where caste factor always plays a key role.
Shah, who had played the social engineering card successfully in the previous polls by making some alliances, will also study the present scenario and possibilities of searching some new alliances.
Amit Shah’s visit has also increased the heartbeats of many sitting MLAs against whom there are reports of public resentment. The visit of Shah just a few days before the proposed inauguration of Purvanchal Expressway in Sultanpur district on November 16 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also an indication that the BJP is not in a mood to slow down its campaigning in this region as it is the political base of both the Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Just a few weeks ago, Modi himself came to his parliamentary constituency to launch several projects on the eve of Diwali and he is also expected to visit the city next month to inaugurate his dream project, Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.
After landing at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Babatpur, Shah, along with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Education Minister and state election in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and others reached Banaras Hindu University (BHU) to garland the statue of Pt Madan Mohan Malviya at Lanka on his death anniversary. It was the same statue from where Modi had launched his political campaigning in all the recent polls.
Later, Shah reached TFC where he held a meeting with party workers.
Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma, Union Minister Anurag Thakur, BJP state chief Swatantra Dev Singh, state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, regional presidents and in-charges of all the six regions of BJP were also present.