"BJP Will Win More Seats In Western UP Than Last Time," Union Minister Predicts

UP Election 2022: Western Uttar Pradesh accounts for 76 seats in the 403-member UP Assembly. In 2017, the BJP had got 66 of the 76 seats in the region, while the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress won four, three and two seats, respectively.

The BJP will win more seats in western Uttar Pradesh compared to the last assembly polls, and the farmers' protest had no bearing on public sentiment in the region, Union minister Anurag Thakur has asserted.

Mr Thakur, who is also the BJP's Uttar Pradesh election co-incharge, expressed confidence that the party will return to power in the state with more than 300 seats on the back of a positive public sentiment due to action against "gundaraj", "unprecedented" development and public welfare schemes under the Yogi Adityanath government.

"We brought the (farm) bills for the benefit of farmers. As (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi-ji said maybe, due to some deficiency, we could not make the farmers understand. Even if the bills were repealed, it was done in national interest," he said when news agency PTI asked if the withdrawal of the agri laws will benefit the BJP in western Uttar Pradesh.

"I had gone to Meerut and Saharanpur before the laws were repealed... The public sentiment was very positive then too," he said, adding that huge crowds can be seen in the BJP's rallies and there is a lot of enthusiasm.