Under his leadership, the party won three consecutive elections in UP in 2014, 2017 and 2019.
Although Shah has been involved in the party’s campaign in the state from the beginning, he has assumed full command following the departure of a few of the party’s ministers and MLAs from other backward classes (OBCs) to the main opposition camp.
Shah will start his campaign in the state from Saturday, with meetings in Kairana in western UP. “He will be meeting the families who have settled back after they had left Kairana because of fear in the earlier government. He will also do a door-to-door campaign in Kairana,” Mohit Beniwal, BJP president for western UP, told ET.
After Kairana, Shah will chair a meeting of party workers in Shamli. He will take feedback from the party workers and accordingly devise strategy to woo Jat voters, who seem to be angry with the party. Shah will also discuss the rebel factor and, based on his assessment, will instruct party leaders to reach out to BJP rebels.
In the evening, he will hold a closed-door meeting with influential people and intellectuals in Meerut before returning to Delhi. His next tour will be of Mathura, Agra and Bareilly. On Sunday evening, he will also be part of the BJP core group meeting on UP in Delhi.
Over the past few days, Shah has been coming to the BJP office every morning and staying till late in the night. He held several rounds of meetings on party candidates and seat-sharing with alliance partners. He is directly talking to Apna Dal leader Anupriya Patel and Nishad Party leader Sanjay Nishad over seat-sharing and deciding the candidates.
According to people aware of the matter, the seats have been finalised and some of the BJP candidates are likely to contest from the seats assigned to these parties.
Shah is also closely monitoring the induction of new leaders to the BJP. When state minister Dharam Singh Saini resigned from the party, the BJP was quick to induct Behat Congress MLA Naresh Saini to balance the departure of one Saini community leader. Within two-three days of his joining, Naresh Saini was made the BJP candidate from Behat.