UTTAR PRADESH

Elections 2019: Adityanath holds 'village chaupals' to win back votes

With eye on general elections, UP CM to hold direct interactions with villagers

Yogi as dalit mitra [File] Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath being honoured with the title of 'Dalit Mitra' on Ambedkar Jayanti in Lucknow | PTI

The ruling BJP has high expectations from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ahead of the 2019 general elections. Hence, as part of his election strategy, Adityanath has decided to hold ‘village chaupal’ aimed to establish a good rapport with the villagers of UP. In the coming months, Adityanath and his team is planning to cover all the villages in the state through such chaupals. The CM and his team will spend a night at a village, interacting with the residents and resolving their issues. Chief Minister Adityanath held his first village chaupal at Kandhai-Madhupur village in Pratapgarh, and spent a night with the villagers on Monday night.

Complaints were galore at the first chaupal. Issues ranging from bribery demands from officials to providing benefits of government schemes to the eligible cropped during the chaupal. Adityanath pulled up responsible officials on-the-spot and asked them to take immediate remedial measures or face action. In addition, he personally informed the villagers about various welfare schemes run by the government.

Adityanath also ordered for the arrest of a former engineer and a contractor, and suspension of more engineers who were accused of a scam in water corporation. The UP chief minister believes that the chaupals will also help his government gauge the mood of the public. The chief minister is directly interacting with people and redressing their grievances on the spot during the chaupal.

Interestingly, Adityanath is the first chief minister in the past decade to have a night-out in a village. He dined at a dalit’s house during his stay.

The UP CM is focusing on dalit villages as the state has around 21 per cent dalit population, an important vote bank for any political party.

The chaupal is an 'image building' exercise for the Adityanath government and the BJP in light of a series of recent events. The Unnao rape incident, defeats in Phoolpur and Gorakhpur parliamentary by-polls, and internal rebellion by allies and own MPs dented the BJP's image in UP recently.

BJP national president Amit Shah also, during his recent visit to the state, had directed the UP chief minister to have ‘direct contact’ with the people, especially rural folks, to quell their seething anger.

In 2014 general elections, the BJP and its allies had won 73 seats from UP. However, UP kept its best for the BJP for the 2017 assembly elections in which the party bagged more than 300 seats, a record-breaking achievement.

And hence, the bar is quite high for Yogi this time. The BJP high command wants UP, which sends 80 MPs to Parliament, to contribute generously to its overall number of seats in the general elections of 2019.

Now, with Adityanath back in action, it remains to seen whether such moves will get the BJP the expected number of seats in the upcoming general elections.