Amit, Rajnath, Sushma to kick off BJP's UP campaign

With less than 20 days to go for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to kick off its poll campaign in key state Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

The party has also planned about 40 public meetings across the state on March 26.

A senior BJP leader told IANS that BJP chief Amit Shah will kick off the party's Vijay Sankalp campaign from Agra on Sunday.

Shah will also address a public meeting in Moradabad on March 26, the leader added.

Besides Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will address a public meeting in his parliamentary constituency Lucknow on Sunday, while his colleague, Health Minister J.P. Nadda will address a rally in Sambhal.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address a party rally in Gautam Buddha Nagar and Textiles Minister Smriti Irani in Kanpur.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath will launch the party's poll campaign in the state from Saharanpur after paying obeisance at the Shakumbari Devi temple - from where party chief Amit Shah had kicked off the "Parivartan Yatra" ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections. He will also address a public meeting near the temple.

Adityanath's meetings will come much in advance of a joint rally of Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh in Saharanpur's Deoband on April 7.

Meanwhile, Adityanath's deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya will kick off the party's election campaign in Kheri district. He is also expected to visit the Datia Pitambara Peeth temple on the borders of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh before addressing public rallies.

BJP state unit chief Mahendra Nath Pandey will address the public meeting in Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli on March 24, and Manoj Sinha will hold a rally in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi on March 24.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had won 73 out of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2014. While the BSP drew a blank, the Congress and the SP won 2 and 5 seats, respectively.

--IANS

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