UP: BJP MPs, MLAs to hold meetings at 1,400 polling centres

LUCKNOW: After an overwhelming win in byelections on six out of seven assembly seats, BJP has gone into an overdrive to consolidate its position on 11 teachers’ and graduate constituency seats where polling is due on December 1.
The UP BJP leadership has asked MPs and MLAs to hold a three-day convention, beginning Wednesday, on nine seats where BJP has fielded candidates.The party has not fielded candidates in Varanasi and Gorakhpur. It is contesting teachers’ constituency seat for the first time.
A senior leader said the party has framed a two-pronged strategy—first reaching out to voters and then ensuring they vote for the party. For this, MPs and MLAs would hold meetings with party workers in their region.
The party would also rope in deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and basic education minister Satish Dwivedi. The party has appointed functionaries as in charge of various polling centres, sources said.
“Every functionary has been tasked to bring at least five voters to the polling centres,” a senior BJP leader said. Sources said the functionaries have, in fact, been allocated voters.
UP BJP general secretary and in-charge of elections on teachers’ and graduate seats Amar Pal Maurya told TOI that roping in MLA and MPs is aimed to consolidate party position. “Conventions would be held in approximately 1,400 polling centres in the next three days,” he said.
The development comes days after BJP vice-president Radha Mohan Singh got appointed as UP in-charge to aggressively pursue party affairs in the run-up to 2022 elections.
“Singh hit the ground running and started a series of meetings on teachers’ and graduate seats,” said a party leader. UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and state general secretary Sunil Bansal have already held meetings.
“The party takes every election seriously and drafts a strategy,” said UP BJP vice-president Vijay Bahadur Pathak. He said the election would again prove the “opposition’s callous approach” and seriousness of BJP, which seeks to increase its strength in the legislative council. BJP has 19 members in the upper house which is dominated by SP with 52 members.