After choosing Gujaratis as supervisors for their party in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP and the Congress will now be starting their pre-poll exercise from Ayodhya.
Both the parties have apparently chosen Ayodhya with the intention of polarising votes — albeit in a subtle manner — and, interestingly, both the leaders of BJP and Congress seem to be following a similar road map in UP too.
BJP leader Amit Shah, who is in charge of UP affairs, will be in Ayodhya on July 6 for a meeting with party workers of Avadh Prant.
He is expected to understand the problems of party workers and also make an assessment of the reason why the party has lost ground in the temple town.
Though the BJP, at present, is not in a mood to rake up the temple issue and wants to concentrate o the governance model of Gujarat to promote its chief minister Narendra Modi as a prime ministerial candidate, it does not want to seen as having abandoned the Ayodhya issue completely.
“Too much is being read into Mr Shah’s Ayodhya visit by the media. Mr Shah is touring all parts of the state and since Ayodhya is the focal point of Avadh Prant, he is holding a meeting there. He has already been to Meerut,” said BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
On other hand, Mr Madhusudan Mistry, AICC general secretary in charge of UP affairs, will also be visiting Ayodhya and Faizabad on July 10 to inaugurate the Congress zonal office there.
UPCC president Nirmal Khatri is the Congress MP from Faizabad and it is on his insistence that Mr Mistry is visiting the twin cities to inaugurate the office.
Mr Mistry is expected to stay overnight in the twin cities and interact with local leaders.
The Congress, according to a source, does not want to leave the Hindu field clear for the BJP this time.
“While we will continue to work for minorities, we also want to make it clear that we are not anti-Hindu. We want to demolish the myth that the BJP is the sole custodian of Hindu votes,” said a party leader.
After Ayodhya, Mr Amit Shah will be proceeding to Gorakhpur for another meeting with party cadres and leaders. Gorakhpur, incidentally, is considered a major Hindu bastion in UP with Mahant Yogi Adityanath as the local MP.
The mahant has been upset with the BJP on several issues and Mr Shah’s meeting with him is expected to iron out the creases.
Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry is also scheduled to visit Gorakhpur after Ayodhya to inaugurate the zonal office and hold discussions with local leaders.epoll start point: Ayodhya