New Delhi: After the Election Commission of India declared the schedule for five poll-bound states on Saturday, BJP's election committee of Uttar Pradesh is set to meet in Lucknow on Monday. As the poll battle begins with the western part of the state, which witnessed farmers' grievances, religion and law and order in past years, sources said that the 24-members-committee is slated to discuss the election strategy. The meeting, which is to take place at the BJP state office, will commence at 4.00 pm.
Moreover, the last date of filing nominations for the first phase is January 21, hence the committee will also discuss and finalise the candidates for the first phase of the forthcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. 58 Assembly constituencies are scheduled for a vote in this phase, on February 10, including major ACs of western UP- Meerut, Baghpat, Baraut, Agra, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Sahibabad etc.
The western region of the Hindi heartland is considered one of the most politically sensitive, charged and highly polarised areas. Moreover, political experts feel that western UP this time is unlikely to be a cakewalk for the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party.
During the erstwhile state election, the ruling BJP bagged 66 seats while the SP fixed four, the BSP won three, Congress won two, and the RLD finished with one.
However, this time, the political calibration has changed as Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party is going to fight the elections joining hands with Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal, instead of Congress during the last assembly elections in 2017. Though their seat-sharing formula has not yet been announced, their rallies so far indicate that their partnership may give a tough fight to the BJP in many parts of western UP.
The election committee includes chief minister Yogi Adityanath, both his deputies, Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma, party's state chief Swatantra Dev Singh, general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, MPs Sanjeev Balyan, Ramapati Ram Tripathi, Rajveer Singh and Vinod Sonkar, state minister Brajesh Pathak, national vice president Baby Rani Maurya, national general secretary Arun Singh and state in-charge Radha Mohan Singh and co-in-charge Y Satya Kumar, Sunil Oza and Sanjeev Chaurasia, among others.