Modi-Shah on UP poll blitzkrieg

Inauguration of roads, expressway on the cards

Ajay Jha | NT

New Delhi

Top BJP leaders, starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are all set to carpet bomb the key state in the Hindi heartland with a blistering campaign across Uttar Pradesh, ahead of make or break elections in this poll bound state, leaving nothing to chance, smelling victory as a fragmented opposition fails to forge a common platform.

Shah, who had held a meeting of senior party leaders late last month to take stock of the election preparations, will start a two-day tour of the politically crucial state Friday, to be followed by Modi’s visit to Sultanpur on November 16 to inaugurate the 340 km long Purvanchal Expressway.

BJP realises that winning Uttar Pradesh is crucial for it to retain power at the centre when the next parliamentary polls are held in 2024 and intends to leave nothing to chance.

Shah who had scripted BJP’s massive victories in Uttar Pradesh thrice, in the 2014 general elections as the national general secretary, and 2017 assembly elections and 2019 Lok Sabha polls as the BJP president, will be in Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Friday. Officially, he is scheduled to attend the Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhasha Sammelan but in actual fact, he will discuss strategy for the upcoming polls with the state chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and the two deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma in Varanasi before visiting other parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh including Azamgarh, Gorakhpur and Basti on Saturday.