PM Modi to wrap up BJP’s Uttar Pradesh campaign in Meerut on March 30

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a massive rally in Meerut on March 30 to kick off the BJP’s campaign in Uttar Pradesh, a state with 80 Lok Sabha seats. The candidate is Arun Govil, who played Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan in the 1980s and summed up the year Information about the earlier inaugurated Ayodhya Temple.

Uttar Pradesh is the state with the most seats in the Lok Sabha and is crucial to the BJP’s plan to win 370 seats, the target set by the prime minister. The party knows it needs to make a bigger push in the state if it is to surpass the scores from the previous two elections.

In 2014, the BJP won 71 seats in the state. Five years later, in 2019, the number shrunk to 62 due to an alliance between two regional giants, Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party. In a handful of seats, the party eked out passage by a few thousand votes.

The BJP is hoping for a better performance this time, especially after fulfilling its promise to build and inaugurate the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Also boosting their morale is the fact that the SP-BSP alliance is now history. Akhilesh Yadav belongs to India’s opposition parties, while Mayawati is fighting alone in this election.

The party also has high hopes from western Uttar Pradesh, which performed poorly last time. In 2014, the BJP won 24 of the 27 seats in the region. But that number dropped by five seats in 2019 – with all eight seats going to the SP-BSP coalition.

This time, the BJP’s hopes are pinned on an alliance with Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal. The RLD has a significant presence among the Jats in the region, who constitute 18% of the state’s population. Although RLD is contesting 2 seats in the state this time, they are expected to increase the vote share of the BJP in western Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP’s other allies in the state include the ADS and the Nishad Party, which have influence among various caste groups.

On the downside, Akhilesh Yadav’s uncle Shivpal Yadav quit the Samajwadi Party ahead of the 2019 elections and helped the BJP by cannibalizing Samajwadi Party votes Winning several seats, he has now reconciled with his family.

The rapprochement could make the BJP’s task difficult in several seats including Kanauj, where Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav lost in 2019 given to the BJP.