Modi rally on May 26; ministers to visit Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has emerged as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target state to address a rally to mark the completion of his government’s two years in power. With an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state, Mr Modi is expected to address a rally in the western region of the state, Saharanpur, on May 26, the day Mr Modi’s and his council of ministers took oath two years ago. Many senior ministers are scheduled to visit the state during the BJP’s 15-day outreach exercise to mark the Modi government’s second anniversary.

As the Assembly elections are scheduled early next year, the BJP’s big three — Mr Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh and party president Amit Shah — will be visiting the state every month as part of the party’s poll strategy.

Last year, Mr Modi had visited the village of Jan Sangh founder Deen Dayal Upadhyay in Mathura to mark his government’s first anniversary.

UP is considered as the most politically-crucial state also because it has the highest number of Assembly constituencies as well as parliamentary seats. Though the BJP had won 71 out of the total 80 parliamentary seats in 2014, the party has been out of power in the state since 2002. “Most of the ministers will go to the state. They will address public meetings, press conferences, convention of workers besides holding other events as part of the exercise,” BJP general secretary Arun Singh said.

As part of its nationwide exercise to mark the NDA government’s second anniversary, the ruling party has also constituted about 30 teams of four to five members each and every team will visit six places in as many states to ensure the presence of senior party leaders and ministers in maximum states.

Each team will include a Cabinet minister, a minister of state, one party office-bearer apart from a member or two from the state unit concerned.

Mr Rajnath Singh is scheduled to visit Patna, Dehradun, Mumbai and Pathankot while finance minister Arun Jaitley will be going to Bhopal, Lucknow and Amritsar among other places as part of the exercise.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is scheduled to visit Jaipur, Pune, Hyderabad and Chandigarh among other places. The Lok Sabha MPs, including ministers, have also been asked to visit their constituencies.