PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi, CM Kejriwal among big guns to descend on battleground UP next week

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh too are holding rallies in the same week in Gorakhour and Muzaffarnagar respectively. The week will begin with Kejriwal addressing a public meeting in Lucknow on December 18. He has already held meetings in Varanasi and Meerut earlier this month, where he targeted Modi over demonetisation.

The next day (December 19), Modi will address a ‘Parivartan Rally’ in Kanpur. His December 11 rally in Bahraich was cancelled after his helicopter could not land due to bad weather, due to which he delivered a speech over phone. The PM will be addressing BJP’s booth committee members of his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi on December 22, for which the local party unit has started preparations at the DLW ground. The meeting holds significance as it will be the first time a PM will interact exclusively with workers of his constituency.

Meanwhile, Rahul will be in Jaunpur on December 19 and Bahraich on December 22. Satya Dev Tripathi, chairman of the UP Congress communication department, said the young leader will address public meetings on various issues related to farmers along with demonetisation.  Both of Rahul’s public meetings will talking points after he mounted an attack on Modi on Wednesday, claiming he had “detailed information” on “personal corruption” of the prime minister.

On December 22, RLD president Ajit Singh is scheduled to address a ‘Kisan’ rally in Muzaffarnagar. RLD has also invited leaders of JD (U) to the rally which will be held in the Charthaval assembly segment. RLD state president Masood Ahmed said that after this rally, the party’s general secretary Jayant Chaudhary will lead a massive protest opposite Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow on December 26 on the issues of farmers and against demonetisation.

On December 24, the BJP will try to colour the state capital in saffron with four of its Parivartan Yatras — which started last month from Sonbhadra, Ballia, Saharanpur and Jhansi — concluding in Lucknow. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra and Uma Bharti among others are likely to be present. Earlier, Modi too was scheduled to address a public meeting on the occasion in Lucknow on December 24, but that has now been shifted to January 2.

Mulayam was supposed to speak at a public meeting on December 20 in Deoria district, which has been shifted to December 25 in Gorakhpur. In his earlier rallies held in Bareilly and Ghazipur, the SP chief and other senior leaders had targeted the Centre on demonetisation.  A delegation of the Election Commission led by Deputy Election Commissioner Vijay Kumar Dev will review poll preparations in Varanasi division on December 19, Allahabad division on December 20, Kanpur division on December 21 and Lucknow on December 22.