Modi to start UP campaign in Oct from Cong bastions

This would be Modi's first visit to UP after his anointment as BJP's prime ministerial candidate

Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s prime ministerial candidate, is going to campaign in Uttar Pradesh from next month. The Gujarat chief minister will begin their general election campaign in the state from Kanpur, Jhansi and Bahraich, not considered bastions of the BJP.

This would be Modi's first visit to the state after his elevation as chairman of the BJP's central election campaign committee and then his anointment as the party's nominee for PM. Modi and Rajnath Singh, the party's national president (and former UP chief minister) are scheduled to address a rally in Kanpur on October 15, followed by one at Jhansi on October 25 and in Bahraich on November 8, the party’s chief state spokesman, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, said in Lucknow.

While Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is the Lok Sabha member from Kanpur, minister of state for rural development Pradeep Jain is the one from from Jhansi. Bahraich is also represented by a Congress member, Kamal Kishore.

The BJP is planning to announce its strategy for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections at a gathering in Bhopal on Wednesday. At the gathering, Modi would share the podium with party veteran L K Advani. It is expected about 5,00,000 workers would attend the event, entry tickets for which would be sold at Rs 5 each.

Modi did not campaign in UP during last year’s assembly elections. The state’s 80 seats form 15 per cent of the Lok Sabha's 545 MPs and plays an important role in deciding which party comes to power at the Centre. In the 2009 general election, the BJP was behind the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress.