BJP to field 300 MPs in Delhi for Yoga Day, signals focus on Capital before polls

Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Harsh Vardhan, BJP working president J.P. Nadda are among those who will perform yoga in Delhi on International Day of Yoga.

BJP President Amit Shah doing Yoga with Ramdev in Ahmedabad on International Yoga Day | Twitter @AmitShah

New Delhi: Nearly 300 Members of Parliament of the BJP will fan out in Delhi to perform yoga on International Day of Yoga Friday, a move meant to bolster the party’s prospects in the state assembly elections due early next year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah will take part in yoga events in Jharkhand and Haryana, respectively. Both states will go to polls later this year.

With the BJP’s stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections last month in Delhi where it won all the seven seats, the party is now hoping to improve its tally in the 70- member state assembly. The BJP, at present, has only three MLAs in the national capital, while Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) the rest.

Delhi is important for BJP

The BJP’s strategists were unhappy that the party’s Delhi unit was unable to convert the popularity of Narendra Modi into seats during the assembly elections in 2015 and have, therefore, given the task to the state leadership to make amends and considerably improve their performance in the 2020 polls.

Sources said deployment of 300 MPs in Delhi for yoga day events clearly shows the BJP’s intent to wrest the state from AAP.

The yoga day events will also initiate the process of mass contact programme by senior BJP leaders and ministers to make the citizens of Delhi aware about “people-friendly” policies of the Narendra Modi government, sources said.

Who is going where

Sources said Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu will attend an event at Lal Quila, while BJP’s new working president J.P. Nadda will be present at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park along with party’s general secretary (organisation) Ram Lal.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will attend an event in Keshavpuram, while former union minister Satyapal Singh will perform yoga in Rajouri Garden. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be present at Yamuna Sports Complex and Health Minister and Delhi MP Harsh Vardhan will perform yoga in Kudesia Park.

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal will attend a yoga event in Burari, Asansol Lok Sabha MP Babul Supriyo will be in Karawal Nagar, minister Mansukh Mandaviya at Shyam Lal College and Lok Sabha MP Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in Jyoti Nagar.