Eye on LS polls, Yogi and his ministers to take part in bike rallies

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his cabinet colleagues will be seen riding motorcycles on Saturday as part of the BJP's efforts to garner support for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has organised a "Kamal Sandesh Yatra" across UP to propagate the work done by both central and state governments, a senior party leader told PTI.

The campaign will be held at all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Besides Adityanath, who will participate in the motorcycle rally in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, state BJP president Mahendra Nath Pandey will hit the streets in Chandauli.

The BJP's campaign is seen as a counter to the Samajwadi Party's proposed bicycle rallies in December in which the SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, will himself ride the vehicle.

Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma will join the motorcycle rallies at Prayagraj and the state capital, respectively, the BJP leader said.

UP BJP general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal will be in Kannauj, the Lok Sabha seat held by Akhilesh Yadav's wife Dimple Yadav.

BJP state general secretary and MLA Pankaj Singh will lead the bike rally in Gorakhpur.

In the 2012 assembly election, Akhilesh Yadav had led the SP's campaign on a bicycle and had undertaken 'Rath yatras' crisscrossing the state.

Akhilesh Yadav was scheduled to begin his bicycle yatra about a month ago, but SP sources said the plan was later pushed to December.

The SP's bicycle yatra is likely to start from the village of a boy named 'Khajanchi', who was born outside an ATM kiosk in 2016 during the Centre's demonetisation drive.

The BJP, which won 70 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in 2014, is eyeing to repeat its performance in 2019.