BJP focuses on 14 seats in UP not won by NDA in 2019, hopes schemes, Union ministers do the trick

The 14 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, which are currently held by the non-NDA parties, have become a key focus of the ruling BJP’s strategy in the crucial state in the upcoming polls. Aiming to wrest these seats in the upcoming polls, the BJP is deploying central leaders there, finetuning its message on welfare schemes, and brainstorming over the selection of suitable candidates.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 62 out of 80 seats in UP on its own, while its ally, the Apna Dal (Sonelal) won 2 seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 10 seats, its then ally Samajwadi Party (SP) five, while the Congress got just one seat.

In the bypolls held subsequently, the BJP managed to wrest Azamgarh and Rampur from the SP. The 14 seats which are not held by the BJP-led NDA include Ghazipur, Lalganj, Nagina, Amroha, Bijnor, Ambedkar Nagar, Saharanpur, Ghosi, Shravasti, Jaunpur, Sambhal, Moradabad, Mainpuri and Rae Bareli.

BJP sources told The Indian Express that a major challenge in these seats has been the selection of candidates as well as the balancing of local caste equations.

To establish a connection with the voters, BJP sources said, the party has undertaken a “sampark abhiyan” (outreach campaign) to target “labharthis” (beneficiaries) of the party-led central and state governments’ schemes in these 14 seats. As part of this exercise, feedback was also sought from the grassroots party workers.

The BJP has also deployed several Union ministers, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, Annapurna Dwivedi and Jitendra Singh, to visit these constituencies and address the situation on the ground.

“We might have lost these 14 seats. However, we have worked hard on finding out the reason for these losses. Union ministers were given