Political parties in UP tweak campaign strategy as mercury soars

With temperatures rising menacingly with every passing day, various political parties have tweaked their campaign style and strategy to protect their workers and voters from the heat.

Lucknow recorded 42 degrees Celsius on Sunday and there is no respite in sight from the heatwave in the near future.

BJP MLA from Sarojini Nagar in Lucknow, Rajeshwar Singh, said, “We are not campaigning between 12 noon and 4 p.m. We connect with voters in door-to-door meetings between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and in the evening, we do meetings in small groups. Most of the organisational meetings at the ward level are held indoors in the afternoon.”

He further said, “Our focus is on increasing the voter turnout in the state capital. With the district administration deciding to make polling stations in 14 high-rise buildings, the party is knocking at every door appealing to voters to cast their votes as a responsible citizen of the country.”

Praveen Garg, media in charge of BJP, said, “We carry out door-to-door visits in morning hours between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thereafter, we do our organisation meetings to chalk out strategies and again in the evening, we do ‘nukkad sabha’ and public meetings in small groups.”

“We have made adequate arrangements for packaged drinking water for our party workers on Monday when Rajnath Singh files his nomination in which several thousand people will take part in the procession from the state BJP office to the Collectorate,” Garg added.

The Samajwadi Party leaders also have made changes in their timings to connect with people as they drum up support for their sitting MLA Ravidas Mehrotra who has been fielded against Rajnath Singh from Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.

“We planned a month-long connect with our voters that began on April 18 and ends on May 18. We are doing a door-to-door campaign between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. In the afternoon, we hold meetings in community halls. Between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., we try to reach out to voters by organising small meetings,” said Gaurav Singh Yadav, media in-charge, Samajwadi Party, Lucknow Lok Sabha seat.