Ayodhya to Mathura: BJP's new poll hub

NEW DELHI: The BJP will hold a two-day Chintan Baithak (strategy meeting) in Mathura on October 3 and 4 to strengthen its election machinery ahead of assembly polls early next year.

This will be the first party meeting with the entire BJP team, including recently appointed party in-charge Vinod Tawde and four co-in-charges. The meeting will be attended by BJP national president Nitin Nabin, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, state BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary and other senior leaders from the state.

Party leaders will review the ground situation in the Braj region as well as the entire state and accordingly discuss the roadmap for the upcoming elections.


Selecting Mathura in the Braj region as the venue for the meeting indicates the importance of the region for the BJP.

The assembly elections will be the first election in the state where the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya will not be an election issue, as the temple has been constructed. A few UP BJP leaders told ET that the party now wants to take its campaign beyond Ayodhya, especially after the recent incident of donation theft in the temple.

This makes the selection of Braj for the meeting an obvious choice. UP CM Yogi Adityanath has repeatedly said that after Ayodhya, it is the turn of Mathura to be developed as the new religious centre of the state.

Braj has been electorally important for the BJP. During the 2019 LS election, the BJP won 12 out of 13 seats in the Braj region. In the 2024 LS elections, the number was reduced to eight. In the 2022 assembly polls, the BJP won 53 assembly seats out of 65 in the region, down from 57 it won in the 2017 polls.

Yogi has been visiting Mathura every now and then and recently paid a visit during the Janmashtami festival. BJP president Nitin Nabin also visited Mathura on January 20, his first trip after taking charge as party president.

State BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary, after taking charge on December 14 last year, visited Banke Bihari temple in Mathura and started his Braj yatra on December 27.