Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday convened a meeting to discuss strategy for the upcoming state assembly by-elections. Ministers in charge of by-elections for all 10 assembly seats will participate along with one organisational officer allotted for each seat. The state assembly by-elections are crucial for the BJP, especially after its poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Adityanath is personally leading the by-election campaign and is aiming to win in all contested seats.
Seats in which by-elections are held
The seats in which by-elections are being held are Katehari, Milkhipur, Kalhar, Phur, Majhawan, Ghaziabad, Meerapur, Kundalki and Khair, which fell vacant following the Lok Sabha elections when nine MPs became MPs. The Sisamau seat in Kanpur is also vacant due to the imprisonment of SP MP Irfan Solanki. The SP holds seats such as Kalhar, Kundalki, Katehari, Milkhipur and Sisamau, while the BJP controls Phur, Khair and Ghaziabad. The Meerapur seat is held by the RLD, which is in alliance with the NDA, while the Majhawan seat is held by the Nishad Party.
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At a recent BJP state committee meeting, Adityanath set a target of winning all the seats in the by-elections. The responsibility of each seat has been assigned to three ministers and an organisational officer. In a meeting with state assembly seat officers and party leaders, state president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary and organisational general secretary Dharampal Singh discussed the election strategy. The Chief Minister has now convened a meeting at his residence.
Ministers who attended the meeting
Key ministers participating in the meeting include Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh, Technical Education Minister Ashish Patel, Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi, Minister of State Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh, MSME Minister Rakesh Sachan, Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh, Labour Ministers Anil Rajbhar, Sanjay Nishad, Ministers Sunil Sharma, Anil Kumar, Minister of State Somendra Tomar, Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh, Cooperation Minister JPS Rathore and Sugarcane Development Minister Chaudhary Lakshmi Narayan.
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BJP’s performance in the Lok Sabha
In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Indian coalition consisting of the Samajwadi Party and the Indian National Congress won 43 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the BJP-led NDA won 36, a significant drop from the NDA’s 64 seats in 2019. With by-elections looming for 10 state Assembly seats, attention is focused on whether the saffron party can reverse its fortunes.
