BJP to launch campaign to make inroads in 52,000 UP panchayats

"The Gram Swaraj Abhiyan campaign will be launched on April 14 and will continue till April 24, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech will be broadcast live in all 52,000 gram panchayats," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak told PTI.

BJP has already sent a message by appointing OBC leader Keshav Prasad Maurya as head of the state unit. During the campaign, achievements of Modi government would be highlighted along with the salient features of the Union budget. 'Samrasta' programme would be held from April 14, the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, to April 16.

Pathak said a list of senior functionaries would be drawn to ensure that they visit at least 10 gram panchayats each.

Ahead of the campaign, the party plans to hold district level meetings and flag hoisting. During April 17-24, gram sabhas would be organised by district president and party incharges.

Pathak said that on April 24, the final day of the campaign which will be observed as 'panchayat diwas', senior functionaries and representative would hold gram panchayat in identified villages between 11 AM to 12 noon and ensure live broadcast of the PM's speech in 'chaupals' in every village.

He said that the party has been directed that all MPs, MLAs and former elected representatives be informed in advance by the programme.

"It has been directed to provide booklets from state party office to all functionaries attending the programme," he said.

Special emphasis would be on gram panchayats where the party has not performed well in last Assembly election, Pathak said.

BJP had won 73 seats, including two by its ally, out of 80 seats in the state in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"People are fed up with anarchy and corruption during BSP and SP regimes. They are looking towards BJP as an alternative," Pathak said.

He said, "Our focus is to oust the SP government which has failed on all fronts especially law and order." Maurya has said his top priority is to help BJP form the next government in the state.

"My first priority is to form BJP government in the 2017 assembly election," he said soon after he donned the mantle of UP party chief.

Maurya, the 47-year-old MP from Phulpur in Allahabad, comes from a very humble background and used to sell tea along with his father and newspapers to finance his education in his childhood.

He belongs to most backward castes among the OBCs and his appointment to the post is seen as a move to woo the segment which accounts for 32 per cent of the state's population.