There is a lot of discussion about the yatras before elections in India. Leaders in government often undertake district or assembly wise tours before elections. Many opposition leaders also created a strong atmosphere in their favor through such visits and came to power. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had recently undertaken such a journey. In the past, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Padyatra, Prashant Kishor’s Bihar Yatra, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and Nitish Kumar’s Yatra have also been much talked about. The most interesting elections in the coming time are to be held in Uttar Pradesh and the Chief Minister of the state Yogi Adityanath has started such a journey without any formal announcement. He has visited more than two dozen districts in the last one month. On the contrary, the former CM of the state and the head of Samajwadi Party are confined to their party offices. Perhaps this is the reason why Om Prakash Rajbhar is seen taunting Akhilesh every day as soon as he wakes up in the morning.
Om Prakash Rajbhar often describes Akhilesh Yadav as a leader who sleeps late, does not leave the AC and likes comfort. Many times Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also said that what work will a leader do who sleeps till 11 o’clock? In such a situation, we have tried to see what political activities were done by two prominent leaders of Uttar Pradesh i.e. Yogi Adityanath and Akhilesh Yadav in the last one month. In this, we searched the personal and social media handles of both the leaders and their party. Let us understand in detail.
Under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP looks very strong in Uttar Pradesh. Despite all the allegations, Yogi Adityanath’s popularity is very high. In such a situation, before the elections, CM Yogi himself is visiting each district. Many former Chief Ministers have avoided going to Noida but Yogi Adityanath has gone to Noida thrice in the last one month. He has visited 26 districts of the state in the last 35-40 days. He is visiting these districts and laying the foundation stone and inaugurating government schemes.
At the same time, he is fiercely targeting Samajwadi Party and Congress while listing the old problems of different districts. In the last one month, Yogi Adityanath has visited Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Lalitpur Mahoba of Bundelkhand region, Varanasi of Purvanchal, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, Deoria, Gonda, Sant Kabir Nagar, Noida, Saharanpur, Hathras in western UP, besides Moradabad, Pilibhit, Rampur, Unnao, Kanpur, Ayodhya, Aligarh, Firozabad, Pratapgarh, Have also gone to Sultanpur and Prayagraj.
On June 12, Akhilesh Yadav had visited Kasganj and Etah. During this, he re-inducted former MP Kunwar Devendra Singh Yadav into SP. Etah MP Devendra Singh Yadav had lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 and SP did not give him ticket in 2024. After this he had joined BJP but has now returned to SP. The program in which Akhilesh Yadav had attended was organized by Devendra Singh Yadav himself. Akhilesh had come to inaugurate Devendra Singh Yadav’s Urmila Garden.
In the last one month, Akhilesh Yadav went to Mumbai for Supriya Sule’s daughter’s wedding, attended a wedding in Azamgarh and visited a family in Kannauj to offer condolences after someone died. Apart from this, he spent most of the time in meetings and press conferences at the SP headquarters in Lucknow.
On the contrary, senior leaders of Samajwadi Party are organizing different programs across the state. Ballia MP Sanatan Pandey is going to different districts these days to unite the Brahmins. Senior party leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui, State President Shyam Lal Pal, MPs Rajiv Rai, Dharmendra Yadav and Shivpal Yadav are continuously visiting different areas.
Samajwadi Party has started programs named ‘Vision India: Plan, Develop and Assent (PDA)’. So far three programs have taken place in Meerut, Agra and Prayagraj. Akhilesh Yadav has taken part in all three and the interesting thing is that he has gone to these three places to take part in political activities. In the last one month, Akhilesh Yadav has visited these three districts.
These programs are not being held like traditional political rallies. These are being organized in conference halls or hotels and through this, efforts are being made to educate professionals, businessmen and youth associated with business. It is said that Akhilesh Yadav has a plan behind this. It also includes discussions, quizzes and questions and answers with experts. However, due to gap between one program and less publicity, this program has not been able to gain much popularity.
Through this, Samajwadi Party definitely seems to be trying to change its image. SP leaders say that it wants to show itself as a party of professional and educated people and wants to end the BJP’s campaign in which it calls SP a ‘party of goons’. For this, the responsibility has been given to former IAS officer Alok Ranjan, Professor Abhishek Mishra and Lok Sabha MP Rajiv Rai.
