Uttar Pradesh BJP holds brainstorm meetings ahead of assembly, panchayat polls

By Raghvendra Pandey
Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 23 : Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Panchayat elections for the post of District Panchayat President and Kshetra Panchayat President are due to be held in the country's largest state for which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been continuously brainstorming over the party's strategy by holding meetings.
Over two days beginning June 21, BJP National General Secretary Organization BL Santosh held meetings in Lucknow with party office bearers and key members of the state unit.
On June 21 he reviewed the covid centres, vaccination centres, public awareness campaigns and other relief work started by the party in the state.
Along with this, he also reviewed the past programs and campaigns of the BJP and a strategy was chalked out for the implementation of the upcoming campaigns and programs of the party.
In a second meeting on June 22, Santosh had a three-hour long discussion at the Sangh office with RSS leaders Dattatreya Hosabale, Krishna Gopal and regional campaigner Anil.
Subsequently, Santosh arrived at the BJP office and had a meeting with party leaders including state's general secretary, regional president, in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, state president, and other party office bearers.
During the second round of discussions after lunch, in the biggest and the most important part of the meeting, Santosh met with cabinet ministers of the state.
Members of the core committee, state cabinet ministers, chief minister, both deputy chief ministers, former state president Laxmikant Bajpai, national office bearers of Uttar Pradesh, former Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Katiyar, BJP leader Jitin Prasada, who recently joined the party after resigning from the Congress, national treasurer Rajesh Agarwal and other party leaders were present during this discussion.
After dinner, a third round of discussions was held with the core group in which leaders like BL Santosh, Radha Mohan Singh, State President, State General Secretary, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma were present.
The meetings also come in the backdrop of a speculated state cabinet expansion before the assembly elections.
The meetings, say sources, are slated to continue in Delhi too.
This is said to be the biggest meeting held by the BJP after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and also one of the most important meeting being held after the appointment of Swatantra Dev Singh as the state party president.
Members who participated in the meetings are BJP National Vice President and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Radha Mohan Singh, State President Swatantra Dev Singh, UP BJP General Secretary Sunil Bansal, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma along with all the national office bearers from Uttar Pradesh, cabinet ministers and members of the core group.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the BJP has been campaigning under 'Seva Hi Sangathan', under which many programs or campaigns are going on in the state with many state cabinet ministers being deployed in various blocks and tehsils.
In 2017, with 324 seats out of 403, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies got a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats, 403 assembly seats, 30 Rajya Sabha seats and 100 Legislative Council seats.