As the prime minister presents the party’s case for the Lok Sabha elections, vikas(development) and astha (faith) are anticipated to be combined. At a rally in Bulandshahr, West U.P; on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will introduce development projects valued at over Rs 19,100 crore, marking the beginning of his campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The prime minister is anticipated to use a combination of vikas(development) and Aastha (faith) in order to sell the party’s platform for the Lok Sabha elections, as the rally takes place three days after the opening of a massive Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Pran Pratishta (consecration) of the new Ram Lalla idol there.
The BJP has already organized two months of events centered around the Ram temple in an effort to galvanize party members and supporters ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Following the Pran pratishtha of Lord Ram in Ayodhya this is prime minister Narendra Modi’s first rally in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary stated that the party has gathered its forces to make the PM’s rally a success and has planned a public outreach campaign in West Uttar Pradesh that will run for two weeks. West U.P’s Bulandshahr is home to a sizable population of Lodh Rajputs, Muslim, Gujjars, Jats, and Dalits-all of whom are regarded as traditional BJP supporters.
Bhulandshehar was turned into a BJP stronghold by former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and former governor of Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh Kalyan Singh. The BJP has won the Lok Sabha seat in every election since 1991, with the exception of 2009, when Kamlesh Valmiki of the Samajwadi Party won it. The seven assembly seats in Bulandshahr-Anupshahr, Dibai, Khurja, Bulandshahr Sadar, Syana, Shikarpur, and Sikandrabad-were all won by BJP in the 2022 assembly elections.
In this region of western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won eight of the fourteenth Lok Sabha seats in 2019. It is currently attempting to win the seats it lost to the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party(SP-BSP) alliance in those elections.
A party leader of the BJP expressed optimism that the Prime Minister’s rally will strengthen the party’s campaign. In an effort to take on the BJP, the opposition Samajwadi Party and the Congress have also concentrated on West Uttar Pradesh. They are both attempting to gain the support of Muslims, Jats and Dalits.
The U.P. Jodo Yatra organized by the Congress took in most of the western region’s districts, stretching from Saharanpur to Shahjahanpur. When Rahul Gandhi’s Congress Bharat Jodo Naya Yatra enters Uttar Pradesh next month, it will also travel through western Uttar Pradesh. Commencing on January 17, the Samajwadi Party initiated the PDA (Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) Yatra, which is scheduled to encompass multiple West U.P. districts, such as Shahjahanpur, Badaun, Moradabad, Sambhal, Bijnor, Haridwar, Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, and Ghaziabad.
