Union Home Minister Amit Shah will begin his two-day visit to Lucknow on Friday, with an eye on next year’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The senior BJP leader will attend party organisational meetings and launch a mega membership drive during his visit to Lucknow. 

The Union Home Minister will arrive at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport at 10.30 a.m. and proceed to the Defense Expo Ground to kick off the party’s membership drive, according to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

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After arriving in Lucknow, Shah will address the Awadh region’s office bearers and launch the party’s LED campaign vehicles. 

He will speak to party members at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in the afternoon, where he will be joined by former MLAs, former MPs, the in-charge and convener of the Lok Sabha in the 2019 general elections. 

He’ll also pay a visit to the party’s state headquarters, where he’ll meet with senior leaders and party officials. 

There are concerns that the BJP will deny tickets to several of its current legislators in Uttar Pradesh, and party insiders have hinted that Shah will address the issue during his meetings.

“The LS poll in charges would have an in-depth view of things. They have on-the-ground estimate of how we did well despite a tough caste arithmetic that the coming together of SP-BSP presented before us in 2019 LS polls. That’s why his meeting with them would be important because he would surely base his campaign strategy, either wholly or in part, on the basis of his meetings with them,” a BJP leader told Hindustan Times.

Yogi Adityanath, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, and Swatantra Dev Singh, the state BJP president, had previously directed all MPs, MLAs, and party executives to push the membership drive forward during regional meetings.

In Uttar Pradesh, elections will be conducted in February and March 2022 to elect 403 members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The current assembly, which was elected in 2017, will serve until May 14, 2022. 

In 2017, the BJP won 312 seats, the Samajwadi Party 47, the Congress 7, the RLD 1, the Apna Dal 9, the SBSP 3, and other 1 seat.