4 BJP yatras to counter Akhilesh’s 1

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh is preparing to counter the campaign of the Samajwadi Party, which will focus around chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Vikas Yatra. In response to Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s yatra, the BJP plans to take out four yatras from four parts of the state.

While one yatra will begin from Saharanpur in western UP, the other will take off from Bundelkhand region. The other two yatras will commence from Purvanchal and Avadh regions. Dr Mahendra Singh, BJP national secretary, will be the convenor of these yatras.

Each of these yatras will be led by a national leader who will be accompanied by other leaders of the region and more yatras may later in included in the programme, depending on the response.

According to BJP sources, the yatras will begin at the end of August after the Monsoon Session of Parliament is over and will seek to mobilise party cadres across the state.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Vikas Yatra, covering all the 75 districts in UP, will be aiming at spreading awareness about the developmental agenda of this government. The CM had taken out a similar yatra in 2012 which scripted his success story.

“In each of the four regions, party workers MLAs, MPs and a Union minister will be involved in the yatras which will not only showcase the achievements of the Modi government, but will also highlight the failures of the Akhilesh government.

Each of the yatras will focus on problems that are specific to the region and the only common agenda will be the success stories of the Modi government,” said a party leader.

A team of party thinkers is busy charting out the agenda for each of the yatras.

For instance, the Saharanpur yatra will, expectedly, focus on Hindu migration, the Muslim appeasement policy of the Akhilesh government and the consequences faced by the majority community.

The Bundelkhand yatra will highlight the lack of relief provided by the state government to the drought-hit region and its inability to utilise the money given by the Centre.

Lack of industrialisation and economic backwardness will be the talking points of the Purvanchal yatra while the Avadh yatra will highlight the lawlessness prevailing in the state and the acute power crisis.

Party leaders want that though the yatras may be flagged off on different dates, they should culminate in a massive rally in Lucknow in September or October because that is the time when the election campaign will actually begin in right earnest. The rally, in all likelihood, will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will officially kick off the party’s campaign in UP. “When the yatras culminate, our list of candidates will be out and the tone of the campaign will be ready along with the publicity material”, the party leader added.