Prime Minister Narendra Modi's frequent visits to Uttar Pradesh — five times in the past one month — has rattled the Opposition. In UP, which is the largest populated state, 80 Lok Sabha seats are up for grabs. The BJP had won 72 of them in 2014.
On Sunday, the PM inaugurated and attended ground-breaking ceremony of projects worth Rs 60,000 crore in presence of top industrialists of the country. Opposition parties say that the alliance between the two major political formations in the state, the SP and BSP, have unnerved the BJP, which is now unleashing the PM in the state in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Opposition also expects the frequency of PM's visits to increase as dates of general elections come closer.
BSP supremo Mayawati said that going by the PM's postures and his fifth visit to the state in a month, it seems that Lok Sabha polls could be held earlier along with the Assembly elections of three states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav asked the PM, who has launched his election campaign, to reveal the time of the Lok Sabha elections saying that he must be aware of it. He also attributed the trips to the nervousness in the ruling party, which lost all the by-elections in the state.
"The bonhomie among SP-BSP cadres in four recent bypolls in the state has proved that together the two parties can counter the BJP in the state like nowhere else in the country," he said.
He also believed the frequency of the PM's trips may mean a possibility of rolling out early elections either by year end of by early next year.
"The BJP has little to showcase in terms of achievements in its four-year rule at Centre and in the state. The poor law and order in UP only adds to their problems," he said.
Congress leader Deepak Singh said that the PM and other BJP leaders know their fate in UP during the 2019 polls, hence they are trying to confuse the people through their fake announcements and programmes.
