BJP leaders take lead in addressing rallies – will it be enough?

With the seventh and the last phase of polling ending on Monday, it is the Bharatiya Janata Party that has taken a lead in holding rallies or roads shows in this election campaign which lasted for over two months. Will holding such a huge number of rallies pay dividends for BJP?

It is believed that the BJP leaders led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed 550 rallies, while the national president of the Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav addressed over 200 rallies. For Congress, national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was a lone warrior who led one of the most decent and effective election campaigns and for Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati started late but picked up as the electioneering came to an end.

The BJP had taken a lead in the election campaign even before the election was announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated many projects including Purvanchal Expressway and even paid foundation of Ganga Expressway. The PM also launched the second phase of Ujjawala Yojana from Ballia.

Prime Minister addressed 28 rallies which include roadshows. His few rallies were spread into virtual meetings in which workers from the neighbouring districts too took part. BJP’s national president J P Nadda addressed 40 rallies, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh 43 rallies, and Union Home Minister 54 rallies.

The maximum number of rallies was addressed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He addressed 204 election meetings followed by 85 by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, 70 by BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh and 26 by another Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Dinesh Sharma.

Thus, in total BJP had addressed 550 rallies in the last two months.

On the other hand, Samajwadi Party national president led the opposition campaign as he addressed 200 rallies. Mayawati addressed 20 rallies but his deputy Satish Chandra Mishra addressed 151 rallies.

Priyanka Gandhi held 42 roadshows, addressed 162 rallies and 340 virtual rallies.