BJP 300 paar: Amit Shah launches door-to-door campaign in Kairana ahead of UP polls

Union home minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah on Saturday conducted door-to-door campaign in Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana and also met several families, who earlier had to leave the northern state due to threats from local criminals for extortion of money.

He also visited the 70-year-old Sadhu sweet shop, whose owner Rakesh Garg was shifted to Ambala, Haryana in 2014 following receipt of a letter from a local gang for extortion of ₹20 lakh. Garg later returned to Uttar Pradesh in the same year to continue his family business.

Speaking to media persons later, Shah said he spoke with as many as 11 members of one Mittal family who informed him that they no longer live in fear. He added that the family were forced to leave Uttar Pradesh earlier due to law and order scenario.

“Yogi (Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath) implemented different schemes of Modiji (PM Narendra Modi). However, the first and foremost issue was to improve the law and order,” the Union home minister added.

He further stated he came to Kairana, situated in western Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district, for the first time since 2014, and that he is “pleased to see the changed atmosphere” in the region.

The minister kicked off the election campaign for the saffron party’s Kairana candidate Mriganka Singh, eldest daughter of late Hukum Singh who emerged victorious from the constituency several times.

Shah said that in 2014, PM Modi took the axis of development in Uttar Pradesh in his hand and after Adityanath became the chief minister of the state following 2017 polls, he “accelerated” the same.

Shah further pointed out that during his meeting with the families and door-to-door campaign, people told him it was due to the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh headed by Adityanath that law and order situation “improved” in the state and those who were forced to migrate have returned.

“They are doing their business peacefully. I want to tell people that we are committed to maintaining law and order situation in UP, end appeasement and tradition of governments working for a particular caste,” the minister added.

Shah said that everyone is saying that in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, “BJP 300 paar (BJP will win over 300 seats).”

The minister’s helicopter landed in Kairana nearly an hour late at 3.40pm owing to bad weather. Shah is scheduled to visit Meerut later in the day to hold a meeting with intellectuals, according to news agency ANI.

Uttar Pradesh will go into polls in seven phases between February 10 and March 7, with the counting of votes scheduled on March 10. The BJP, which has so far released four lists of candidates and fielded Adityanath from Gorakhpur constituency, is looking to retain power in the state. In 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP registered a thumping victory by bagging 312 of the 403 seats. The Samajwadi Party (SP) managed to win 47 seats while Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress won 19 and seven seats, respectively.