BJP will sweep upcoming Assembly bypolls in UP: Newly-appointed state party chief

Exuding confidence that he will clear his first electoral test after being appointed as the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief, Swatantra Dev Singh on Wednesday said the saffron party will sweep the upcoming Assembly bypolls in the state.

"The party is already on a strong footing in the state. The confidence of the workers is high. We will definitely win the upcoming bypolls, riding on the welfare works done by the Narendra Modi government (at the Centre) and the Yogi (Adityanath) government in the state, and also on the basis of the party's organisational strength," Singh told PTI in an interview, a day after he was appointed as the Uttar Pradesh BJP chief.

He also claimed that the party will sweep the zila panchayat polls, scheduled to be held next year.

The bypolls to 11 Assembly seats were necessitated as the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha, while the vacancy in Hamirpur was caused due to the disqualification of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel following his conviction in a murder case.

The constituencies that fell vacant following the election of the sitting MLAs as MPs are Manikpur, Iglas (SC), Zaidpur (SC), Gangoh, Balha (SC), Rampur, Jalalpur, Pratapgarh, Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar and Tundla (SC).

Asked about his roadmap for the party, Singh said, "Currently, the focus of the party is on the membership drive. The target is to bring more people into the BJP-fold and we are giving momentum to the organisational activities."