Lucknow, Oct 30 Union Home Minister Amit Shah connected with cadres during his Lucknow visit on Friday and tasked them with the BJP’s Mission 2027 in Uttar Pradesh, where the party is looking to buck the two-term anti-incumbency for an unprecedented hat-trick.
Attending the inaugural session of the BJP’s two-day state working committee meet, Shah acknowledged the importance of the party’s foot soldiers, saying, “Ours is a party where leaders too begin as cadres.”
The former BJP national president is widely hailed as the architect of the BJP’s phenomenal turnaround in Uttar Pradesh after he took over as its state in-charge ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
That year, the BJP won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh while its ally Apna Dal won two, sweeping the most populous state and contributing in a big way to the formation of a BJP government at the Centre.
Shah, in the presence of state BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other leaders, conveyed the cadre-first approach in clever political messaging, party leaders said.
“Deliberations on the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections took place today. He (Shah) explained things in great detail and connected with every worker individually,” state minister A K Sharma told PTI Videos.
“The cadres heard him and felt energised,” Sharma said, recalling how Shah had galvanised the party’s rank and file in 2013-14.
The BJP has never looked back in Uttar Pradesh since 2014, winning successive Assembly elections (2017 and 2022) and dominating Lok Sabha polls (2014 and 2019), though it faced setbacks in the 2024 general elections, losing the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, of which Ayodhya is a part.
“He is full of energy, a master of strategy. Merely seeing or hearing him is enough to inspire the cadres,” said minister J P S Rathore, who was present at the meeting.
During his address, Shah used the term “Angad ka pair (Angad’s foot)” to refer to BJP’s political dominance in Uttar Pradesh. Party leaders admitted that cadres will take this message to the masses.
“As he said, the BJP government’s position in Uttar Pradesh is like Angad’s foot, which nobody can uproot,” Sharma said, adding that the reference to Angad, a character from the Ramayana whose foot could not be moved despite repeated attempts by demon king Ravana, reflected the confidence of the party leadership in retaining Uttar Pradesh.
BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Arun Singh said party workers would now return with a renewed commitment to secure a third consecutive mandate.
“Workers from across the state attended today’s meeting. They will return with a resolve to ensure that the BJP forms a government for the third time in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
The political significance of Shah’s intervention also comes against the backdrop of the Samajwadi Party’s growing electoral footprint. The Samajwadi Party won 111 seats against the BJP’s 255 in the 2022 Assembly elections and also emerged as the single-largest party in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, winning 37 seats.
In the recent Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, Samajwadi Party won five seats against BJP’s six, two more than what it won in 2020.
The Samajwadi Party also won both teachers’ and graduates’ constituency seats in Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
The BJP leaders promptly dismissed any comparison of these polls with the 2027 Assembly elections.
“Can’t compare the two,” a party leader said, adding that the BJP was looking at the “big picture”.
“Everyone considers Amit Shah ji as a Chanakya. I believe his guidance will strengthen the BJP further as we work towards our target of crossing 300 seats and securing a majority,” he told PTI Videos.
Cabinet Minister Dara Singh Chauhan described Shah’s address as a major morale booster for the party cadre.
“His enthusiastic address has generated tremendous energy among workers across the state. The respect and confidence of party workers have increased, and I believe the BJP is heading towards forming the government in Uttar Pradesh,” said Chauhan.
(PTI News)
