LS Polls: BJP seeks to woo farmers, poor under GYAN campaign in UP

The BJP in Uttar Pradesh will be seeking to increase its vote count through its campaign GYAN Ghareeb, Youth, Annadata, Nari by taking its work among the young, poor and farmers, and women.

The campaign has been forged in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to party workers in the state to increase the vote count in each booth by 370 votes a cue to remind people that it was the BJP government which enabled the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

Modi had earlier in February claimed that BJP will cross the 400-mark in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

There are more than 1.60 lakh booths in the state with an average of 950 voters registered in each of them.

According to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, about 15.29 crore people are expected to exercise their franchise in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.

According to BJP's election strategists, if each booth increases its vote count by 370, it will amount to 6 crore more votes for the party.

The BJP had on Saturday announced 51 candidates for Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 LS seats in total.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the voting percentage in the state was just over 59 per cent.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance had received 51.19 per cent votes in the state, of which the BJP's share was 49.98 per cent.

In 2019, out of more than 14.58 crore registered voters in the state, more than 8.65 crore had cast their vote. More than 4.5 crore of them went in favour of the BJP-led alliance.

BJP state vice president and Legislative Council member Vijay Bahadur Pathak told PTI that under the GYAN campaign party workers will communicate the central government's scheme to the masses.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said, "BJP does what it says, even when we had two members in Parliament, we had said that we will remove Article 370 and build a grand temple of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya. The BJP stuck to the issue it raised and accomplished both."

He added, "It is a matter of pride for the entire country that the Tricolour was hoisted in Jammu and Kashmir and Lal Chowk not under the shadow of bayonets . The people of the country understand that only Modi can do this miracle."

Samajwadi Party's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary accused the BJP of cheating the poor, youth, farmers and women -- the very people it plans to woo now.

"This time they will teach a lesson to the BJP government which is flouting democracy and the Constitution and will oust it from power," he said.

Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats the highest in the country.

The BJP had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections along with Apna Dal (S) as n ally and won 64 seats, of which Apna Dal got two.

Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party, and Rashtriya Lok Dal, which fought the election together, could muster only 15 seats. BSP and SP won 10 and five seats, respectively, while RLD failed to open its account.

Congress got its sole seat with the victory of Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli.

Rahul Gandhi lost the election in Amethi against Union Minister Smriti Irani.

The Centre had on August 5, 2019 abolished Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir, and also divided the state into two Union Territories Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.