New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released a list of 30-star campaigners for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
While many star campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah are on the list, party MPs and mother-son duo Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi have been excluded from the list. The duo has been victorious multiple times from Sultanpur and Pilibhit.
In the recent rejig of the BJP national executive committee, the two were also dropped from that list.
BJP releases a list of 30 leaders who will campaign for the party’s candidates in the first phase of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh election.
The first name on that list includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by party national president JP Nadda. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BJP candidate from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath also features on that list of star campaigners.
Others on that list include Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and state president Swatantra Dev Singh.
Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Dinesh Sharma Keshav Prasad Maurya were also on the list. Sanjeev Balyan and Radha Mohan Singh amongst others were on the list.
Varun Gandhi has taken on Twitter on multiple occasions questioning his party on farmers issue and also the mowing down of farmers by Union MOS Ajay Mishra Teni’s son and subtly blaming his government in the Centre and in the state for not taking action quick enough to arrest Ashish Mishra Teni.
Given the constraints of campaigning because of the spread of COVID, the BJP is likely to hit the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh in a phased-out manner doing door-to-door campaigning and from there on doing closed-door meetings which would allow 300 people.
BJP sources told ANI that the top leaders of the party including Home Minister Amit Shah and national president JP Nadda will start touring Uttar Pradesh starting the third week of January.
Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. The polling in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27 and March 3 and 7.
Rallies in hybrid mode in five poll-bound states
Amid the ongoing ban on physical rallies and roadshows in the five poll-bound states in view of a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold rallies in these states in a hybrid mode which is expected to be joined by more and more people through different social media platforms, informed party sources.
According to party sources, the BJP has prepared a new campaign strategy for the assembly elections in five states keeping in mind the COVID-19 guidelines, wherein small rallies will be telecast live on various social media platforms which will witness the participation of around one to two lakh people.
BJP National President JP Nadda after deliberating with several leaders on the strategy of this campaign decided that all the rallies would be held in a hybrid mode where senior leaders of the party will physically address small gatherings and these rallies will be telecast live in different regions several times and streamed on various social media platforms.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on January 15 extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows in the five poll-bound states till January 22.
However, the commission also granted relaxations for the political parties in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Manipur and Uttarakhand, where assembly elections will be held from February 10 till March 10.
Earlier on January 8, the commission, while announcing the schedule for upcoming assembly polls in five states, suspended the physical rallies till January 15 in view of rising COVID-19 cases.
Polling assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, with 403 constituencies, will take place across all seven phases.
Manipur with 60 constituencies will vote on February 27 and March 3.
Punjab with 117 constituencies will go to the polls on February 20. Earlier it was scheduled to vote on February 14.
Uttarakhand with 70 constituencies and Goa with 40 constituencies will cast their vote in a single phase on February 14.
The counting of votes for all assembly seats in the five states will be held on March 10.
