PM escalates his campaign in UP and West Bengal in the last lap

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has escalated his campaign in Eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in the last lap of the elections, slotting ten more of his rallies there in the next one week after he held as many as five rallies in both states on Thursday.

In UP, the PM will be in Ghazipur and Robertsganj on May 11 and Ghosi, Chandauli and Mirzpur on May 16. PM will also be in West Bengal in Basirhat and Diamond Harbour on May 15 and in Mathurapur and Dum Dum on May 16. Senior BJP leaders did not rule out at least a couple more rallies of the PM being slotted in both these states till May 17, the last date of campaigning. The PM did rallies in UP's Prayagraj, Jaunpur and Azamgarh as well as West Bengal's Purulia and Bankura on Thursday.

This would mean that PM could hold over 15 rallies in East UP and at least eight in West Bengal in the last three phases - significantly up from over the earlier four phases of the elections when he only held 12 rallies in UP and just seven in West Bengal. A senior BJP leader involved in the planning of the rallies told ET this is a "upping-the-ante strategy" as the BJP is getting "positive feedback from the ground" and hence the PM wants to be be seen more across both the crucial states.


No rally of the PM has been slotted so far in Varanasi, his own constituency after he had said during his last visit there while filing his nomination that he may not return to campaign there.

The seven-phase election in both these states has also helped the PM focus his energy more in these states towards the end of the campaign as the only major states polling along with them in the last two phases are Punjab, Haryana and Delhi. PM held only a single rally in Delhi.