BJP launches 'Jan Ashirvad Yatra' in Uttar Pradesh

In a massive outreach campaign ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh due early next year, the BJP on Monday launched a statewide 'jan ashrivad yatra' during which the seven ministers in the Union Cabinet from UP would be traversing more than three thousand kilometres covering 120 assembly constituencies in the state.

The yatra would end on Friday.

The yatra was intended to showcase what the saffron party called ''people-friendly'' schemes of the Narendra Modi government and seek "blessings" of the electorate to become victorious in the next assembly elections.

Three union ministers from UP, Kaushal Kishore, Pankaj Chaudhary and Ajai Mishra embarked on the 'yatra' to their respective regions from the state capital on Monday.

While Kishore would be undertaking the yatra in Unnao, Raebareli, Lucknow and some other nearby districts, Mishra would seek blessings from the people in Lakhimpur Kheri, Hardoi, Shahajahanpur districts, BJP sources here said.

Chaudhary would be embarking on a similar yatra in Basti, Siddharth Nagar and other nearby districts.

''The yatra will cover 120 assembly constituencies...public meetings and other programs will be held during the yatra...we will be telling the people about the policies and programs of the Centre and the state governments and expose the opposition propaganda,'' said a senior BJP leader here.

Sources added that the party expected some protest in the Jat-dominated western UP regions from the farmers who had been agitating for the past several months demanding to scrap the new farm laws.

Sources said that farmers' leaders had asked the residents of the villages in some districts in the region not to allow the BJP leaders to enter.

BJP lawmaker Umesh Malik had to face the wrath of the farmers recently at Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar district when his vehicle was stoned by angry farmers.