PM Modi will speak at UP rallies on May 16–17
May 15, Lucknow According to the party spokesperson, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will speak at consecutive rallies in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, he would conduct rallies in Azamgarh and Jaunpur. The purpose of the Azamgarh rally is to strengthen the party’s position in both the Lalganj and Azamgarh parliamentary seats, while the Jaunpur rally will also focus on the Machhlishahr seat.
Remarkably, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SP-BSP alliance defeated the BJP in Azamgarh, Lalganj, and Jaunpur, with the exception of Machhlishahr.
Machhlishahr was won by the BJP by an extremely narrow margin of 181 votes, as Bholanath Saroj, the party’s nominee, defeated Tribhuwan Ram, the BSP candidate and a former PWD chief engineer.
Returning to the fight, Saroj faces Priya Saroj of the SP, the daughter of SP veteran and former MP Tufani Saroj.
By a margin of almost 81,000 votes, BSP candidate Shyam Singh Yadav beat BJP candidate Krishna Pratap Singh to win the neighboring seat of Jaunpur.
The Jaunpur Sadar Assembly area of Jaunpur has been designated as the venue for the PM rally. The BSP’s decision to run Srikala, the wife of mafia-turned-politician Dhananjay Singh, from the constituency has put the seat in the headlines lately.
Later, BSP chief Mayawati dropped Srikala’s candidacy and put Shyam Singh Yadav in the running.
Yadav will face Kripa Shanker Singh of the BJP, a former home minister of Maharashtra and leader of the Congress.
Former BSP leader and minister Babu Singh Kushwaha has been fielded by the SP.
In a similar vein, SP head Akhilesh Yadav won Azamgarh but left the seat to run in the 2022 UP Assembly elections from his home borough of Karhal in Mainpuri.
Dharmendra Yadav of the SP lost to BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Nirahua in the ensuing by-elections. Once again, Nirahua and Dharmendra Yadav will square off in what might turn out to be a closely followed election in this Muslim- and Yadav-dominated seat.
The Nizamabad Assembly seat, which falls under Lalganj and is where BSP candidate Sangeeta Azad won in 2019, is where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event in Azamgarh has been scheduled.
However, Azad joined the BJP earlier this year but was unable to get a ticket for the election. Neelam Sonkar, a former MP from Lalganj and candidate for the SP, will face Daroga Saroj.
The Prime Minister will also be speaking at rallies in Barabanki and Mohanlalganj on May 17 in an effort to strengthen the party’s standing in the Avadh area.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister was expected to stop for the night in Lucknow on Thursday, according to government sources. In this sense, preparations have already begun.
