Parties to sweat it out in western UP on Monday

Lucknow, April 7 (IANS) With just four days to go for voting in western Uttar Pradesh in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls, the ruling BJP and the Congress will hold mega rallies in several parts of the region on Monday.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader J.P. Nadda will hold public meetings in Meerut, Bijnor and Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituencies, while Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will address publics meeting in Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana and Baghpat constituencies.

The BJP had won all these seats in the 2014 polls. However, it lost Kairana in a 2018 by-poll.

Facing up to the BJP, Congress President Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretaries and eastern UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi and western UP in-charge Jyotiraditya Scindia will hold public meetings in Saharanpur, Shamli and Bijnor.

The mega public address of the BJP and the Congress comes a day after the SP-BSP-RLD alliance held their first joint rally in Saharanpur on Sunday. The joint rally was addressed by Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh.

Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad, and Gautam Buddha Nagar constituencies will go to polls in the first phase on April 11.

Uttar Pradesh is witnessing triangular conest this time. The BJP-led NDA which had won 73 out of the state's 80 seats in 2014 is facing a tough challenge from the Congress and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the state.

The SP had won five seats in the 2014 elections, the Congress two and the BSP and the RLD nil.