Ahead of assembly polls political parties hold rallies, rath yatras in UP

All the major and small parties of the state are busy with their election campaigns and strategies.

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and his allies will visit Banda to hold a rath yatra.

Interestingly, Banda will witness the landing of two helicopters. First, Akhilesh Yadav will be landing at the police lines to participate in the Samajwadi Vijay Rath Yatra. Keshav Dev Maurya of Mahan Dal and Krishna Patel of Apna Dal will also land there in a helicopter.

Starting from Banda, the fifth phase of Vijay Rath Yatra will pass through Mahoba and Lalitpur and will end at Jhansi.

On the other hand, Congress is taking out Pratigya Rath Yatra for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also announced rath yatras. BJP senior leaders including Chief Minister Yogi Adityantah are going to lead the major rath yatras in all six regions of the state.

Previously, in the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP bagged 312 seats out of the 403 while SP bagged 47 seats, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) won 19 and Congress could manage to win only seven seats. Further, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Nishad Party each won one seat, Apna Dal bagged nine and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) managed to win four seats and independent candidates won three seats.

But this time the equation has changed. In the last election, SBSP had contested with BJP but now it is contesting with Akhilesh Yadav's SP. In 2017, there was an alliance between Congress and SP, but this time both the parties are making their separate paths.

Apna Dal is still with BJP in this assembly election. Nishad Party is also in the fray with BJP this time. Notably, RLD's Jayant Chaudhary is in touch with Akhilesh Yadav. Meanwhile, BSP is working hard within from the booth level to the party organization. It has started caste conventions and public meetings.

Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are slated for early next year. (ANI)