Bharatiya Janta Party’s campaign for the crucial by-election for the Sikandra assembly seat got a boost after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressing a rally in support of the party’s candidate Ajit Pal on Sunday where he declared that Kanpur dehat will get a special package like that of Bundelkhand.
“This government is committed to the welfare of the masses. This is our promise to the people and in last eight months we have taken decisions in all sectors that is meant for the welfare of youth, farmers and women,” Yogi said addressing the rally at Bharatiya Vidya Public School in Rajpur.
He said he knew that Knapur dehat is a very backward region and therefore the BJP Government is contemplating to give a special package akin to Bundelkhand.
He talked about pro farmers’ policies his government has taken and how it has waived of loan of over 86 lakh farmers. In its whole regime of five year previous SP Government could not purchase 30 lakh metric ton of paddy while we purchased till date 18 lakh metric tons of paddy. This shows we are committed to the welfare of farmers, Yogi said.
“This government is able to improve law and order because it has no political bias. There is no place for criminals in the state. This is a clear cut warning – either you mend your ways or leave UP. Otherwise action would be taken against you,” he said.
The by-election is scheduled to be held on December 21 and counting of votes will be done on December 24.
The seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MlA Mathura Prasad Pal. BJP has fielded Mathura Prasad Pal’s son Ajit from the seat. He is pitted against Samajwadi Party’s Seema Sachan, who is being supported by smaller parties such as NISHAD Party and Peace Party. Seema Sachan is the wife of former SP MP Rakesh Sachan.
State BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak, who has been camping in Sikandra for the past one week and managing the campaign for the ruling party, said that the party will get a landslide victory in the bypoll.
“After the victory in the urban local bodies elections, now the Sikandra assembly bypoll will set the ball rolling for the BJP for the coming 2019 lok Sabha elections,” Pathak said.
He claimed that campaigning by chief minister and almost all the state ministers and senior BJP leaders has given the party candidate an edge over the opposition candidate.
Congress has fielded Prabhakar Pandey, while Bahujan Samaj Party has not fielded anybody.
However, support extended of NISHAD Party and Peace Party to the SP candidate could make a dent dent in BJP’s vote percentage.
There are 12 candidates, including five Independents in the fray.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, Mathura Prasad Pal won the Sikandra seat by more than 38,000 votes.