BJP goes all out to win Kairana LS seat

Buoyed over its victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP has now turned its attention to the forthcoming Lok Sabha by-poll in Kairana constituency in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, which is scheduled for May 28.

Taking a lesson from the humiliating defeat at Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in the recent by-polls there, the saffron party is not taking any chances this time and has deployed an army of ministers, legislators and senior leaders to ensure that it retains the seat.

According to state BJP sources here, around a dozen ministers, two dozen party MLAs and senior leaders from western Uttar Pradesh have been asked to camp in Kairana.

Sources said that party MPs Sanjiv Baliyan, Rajendra Agarwal and Raghav Lakhanpal and several ministers, including Suresh Rana, Dharam Singh Saini and Anupama Jaiswal, along with around a dozen another senior leaders have been visiting the constituency to seek support for the party nominee Mriganka Singh, the daughter of former MP from Kairana Hukum Singh, whose death necessitated the poll.

Keeping in mind the 1.5 lakh 'Jat' voters in the constituency, the saffron party has asked its important leaders from the community to actively campaign on the seat.

Senior BJP leader Vijay Bahadur Pathak here said that party workers had fanned out across the constituency and holding meetings at 'chaupals' (meeting places in the villages).

"We have learnt our lessons from Gorakhpur and Phulpur... this time we are fully prepared to take on the combined opposition,'' Pathak told DH here on Thursday.

The Samajwadi Party has fielded Tabassum Hasan from the seat. Tabassum will be contesting on the symbol of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The BSP and Congress have also extended support to the SP nominee.