BJP national president Amit Shah is supervising the entire campaign, with able help from all the outfits of the Sangh parivar to ensure victory of the party candidates.

BJP fully understands the importance of winning the two seats, held by Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. A defeat will send utterly wrong signals before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. So much so the name of Narendra and the achievements of his government during last four years are being used to campaign for Upendra Dutt Shukla in Gorakhpur and Kaushlendra Patel in Phulpur.

Yogi is camping in Gorakhpur to supervise the campaign as his own prestige is involved in the contest. He is addressing street meetings and asking voters to ensure victory of Upendra Dutt Shukla as they did for him. Yogi Adityanath won five times from this seat. In order to demoralise the opposition Yogi engineered defection by important leaders from Samajwadi Party, BSP and Congress and brought them over to the BJP election campaign.

Similarly, BJP state president Mahendra Nath Pande is devoting much time in Phulpur, along with cabinet ministers to ensure victory of the party candidate there. Since the BJP won this seat for the first time in the last election, there is realisation that the contest with the Samajwadi Party would be very tough.

As far as the high tech campaign is concerned, BJP is ahead of its rival as the party has pressed into service enough number of vehicles with publicity equipment to campaign in the two constituencies. The party is banking on a possible split in Muslim votes in Phulpur due to sudden arrival of the wife of mafia-turned politician Atiq Ahmad, who is in jail, as independent candidate. Atiq Ahmad had been with BSP as well as Samajwadi Party. He was trying for an SP nomination for his wife, but Akhilesh Yadav turned down the request and his wife filed nomination as an independent candidate.

Phulpur has been a stronghold of Samajwadi Party and BSP during past two decades and their candidates had been winning from there. Akhilesh too has mobilised all resources and senior leaders from neighbouring area to campaign for the party candidates in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

In Gorakhpur Samajwadi Party has fielded Praveen Kumar from the Nishad backward community, which had been traditionally supporting the BJP. Samajwadi Party entered into an alliance with the Nishad Party in the hope of wooing members of the community. It has also enlisted the support from the Peace Party of Dr Ayub to gain support from the Muslim community. The Peace Party is believed to enjoy tremendous influence among the Muslim community in Gorakhpur in particular and eastern UP generally.

Initially, Samajwadi party candidate Nagendra Singh Patel used the name and photographs of Atiq Ahmad for his support and appealed to all BSP voters to support him. But now, Mafia turned politician and former MP from Phulpur Atiq Ahmad is contesting as independent. He is lodged in Deoria jail. Initially he wanted his wife to contest now he himself is contesting which would damage the chances of Samajwadi party in Phulpur.

Congress is also seriously contesting both the seats as AICC president Rahul Gandhi has taken the by-polls seriously. The party has managed to rope in Nasimuddin Siddiqui, former minister and close confidante of BSP leader Mayawati, and his supporters for the campaign. Congress believes that Siddiqui will help wean away significant BSP voters and garner support from members of the Muslim community in Phulpur and Gorakhpur.

Since BSP is not contesting, its voters are left free to decide whom to support. Nasimuddin Sidddiqui has promised to the Congress high command that he would work hard to ensure victory of party candidate Maneesh Mishra in Phulpur and Surhita Chatterjee Kareem in Gorakhpur. Congress is also banking on the popularity of Dr Kareem and his wife in Gorakhpur.

Although BJP has the advantage of divided opposition, the party knows that it would be not so easy to repeat the performance of 2014 when it won 73 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats and 325 out of the 400 assembly seats in 2017. (IPA Service)