Lucknow: Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections early next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s state unit has planned a “grand celebration” of four and a half years of the Yogi Adityanath government.
The celebration will be held between 19 and 26 September in all the districts of the state.
“Generally, the party celebrates a government’s tenure annually, not in a six-month period, but now elections are closer, so we have to celebrate to boost the morale of workers. These events are the best medium to boost our cadre and local leaders. We will celebrate it as ‘Yogi Sarkar: Bemisaal 4.5 Saal’,” said a senior BJP leader on the condition of anonymity.
“The party is planning to organise a grand event at the state headquarters too, where senior leaders and ministers may participate,” he added.
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The plans
The Yogi Adityanath government, which came to power in 2017, will complete 54 months on 19 September. On this day, state BJP leaders including all MLAs and MLCs will participate in celebration programmes at all 27,700 ‘shakti kendras’ across the state, and highlight the achievements of the government.
“A cluster of booths is referred to as ‘shakti kendras’ by our party. Between 6 and 8 booths make one ‘shakti kendra’ in our organisation system. We have 27,700 shakti kendras in the state. In every Vidhan Sabha (constituency), there are 35-40 shakti kendras,” BJP UP general secretary J.P.S. Rathore said.
“All the leaders will be assigned their respective ‘shakti kendras’ to reach for participation. We have also planned press conferences in every district on the same day,” he added.
A UP BJP functionary told ThePrint that digital content on the government’s achievements and information on its welfare schemes will be provided to all district units for distribution.
“We will also try to take feedback from those who come. We will collect their basic information also, so that we can directly share our work on their phones. It helps us to increase connectivity also,” the BJP functionary, who also wished to remain anonymous, said.
According to him, on 20 September, all MLAs will tell people in their constituencies about the government’s initiatives as well as the party’s. Between 21 and 25 September, district units will be asked to organise press conferences. On the final day of the celebration, 26 September, party cadres would distribute booklets on the government’s achievements.
Another source in the BJP said the party is also planning to highlight the importance of shakti kendras. “We have already highlighted booth workers, panna pramukhs (people in charge of each page of the voter’s list) etc. Now, the focus is on these shakti kendras,” he said.
Modi’s birthday celebrations, other campaigns in the works too
Simultaneously, the UP BJP will also run a special ‘Seva Samarpan Abhiyan’ from 17 September to 7 October, to celebrate the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM will turn 71 on 17 September.
Under this, health, blood donation, cleanliness, vaccination, and environmental protection campaigns will be held across the state. Cake-cutting ceremonies could also be held in several districts.
On 11 September, BJP’s national president J.P. Nadda will also virtually inaugurate the party’s ‘Booth Vijay Abhiyan’ (campaign for victory at the booths), party leaders said.
(Edited by Amit Upadhyaya)
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