the prime minister's grand road show in Ghaziabad. Of course, the prime minister has been touring Western U. He was in Saharanpur earlier today and now he's holding that 800 metre long roadshow in Ghaziabad, of course, extremely crucial for the B JP, it is a safe seat. But the BJP is focusing this time as much on the new catchment areas like states. Uh, you know, like states like West Bengal, also the southern states of Telangana, Tamil Nadu, even Kerala, where the prime minister has campaigned extensively. But these are the safe seats for the BJP, whether it is, uh, seats like Ghaziabad or other Western UP seats, including Mathura meat, even saharanpur, for that matter where the prime minister was, are all safe seats for the B JP. And, uh, this particular road show is interesting because road shows, as I said earlier as well, have become a recurring feature of the prime minister's campaigns, uh, in in all states, particularly in the Hindi Heartland states. And what is on display currently here is also a key political plank of the B JP, which is a double engine SAR plank and that seems to be working at least till now for the B JP in the Hindi Heartland states. Whether it is Mad Pradesh or Uttar Pradesh, of course, in states like Gujarat, where the, you know, this has been projected in a big way how the double engine SAR plank is working even in northeastern states like Assam. This does seem to be working for the BJP remains to be seen. However, how much of this messaging, whether it is brand, Modi or the messaging around the Ram Mandir, the Ram Mandir flavour which we saw here in the Ghaziabad Road show as well. How much does this actually resonate with voters in urban constituencies? Because, remember, Ghaziabad is an urban constituency. It's a commercial town. There are various commercial establishments, uh, you know, along this 800 metre long route that the Prime Minister is holding his road through at, uh So how much of these messages actually resonate with the voters with urban voters? And that remains to be seen. In fact, this entire route that the Prime Minister is traversing it is an extremely, uh, commercial route with commercial establishments all along. Vasuda Venu Gopal is now joining us live so vasuda It's a commercial town, as I said Ghaziabad, but also interesting how General VK Singh dropped out of the race. He hung up his boots and the B JP, uh, fielded. It's E Atoll gar from Ghaziabad. So that was interesting as well. Absolutely. And you know, while we know that it's a bustling town with a huge population of traders, Ghaziabad traditionally has also OK, so we seem to have lost that line with Vasudha, of course, something that all of us, as reporters face when you know you have a lot of jammers in place as well. We'll try to reconnect that line with Vasa. But of course, as Vasa was pointing out that this is, you know, the villages of Ghaziabad have traditionally been voting for the B JP. But this was a part of the BP strategy as well, when it announced its campaign that you know it's going to focus as much on the new catchment areas as on safer seats for the BJP. Now, these are traditionally BJP bastions, whether it is Ghaziabad or other Western UP seats. These are all seats that have seen the BJP returning to power despite anti incumbency. You know. I mean, there there has been 10 years of incumbency in these states, but the BJP has managed to buck that as well. So extremely interesting there. And as I said earlier as well that the Prime Minister has been on a on a whirlwind tour of Western UP from Saharanpur to Ghaziabad. He was he was in Ajmer as well. And also interesting that this is this road trip is being held on the B JP Foundation Day sixth of April, Uh, which is, uh, the B JP Foundation Day as well. And Gaza, but as I said, is interesting because General BK Singh hung up his boots and the B JP fielded is sitting E a But Mara Shakila senior colleague is joining us live on the phone line. So, Mara, you know the BJP focusing as much on new catchment areas as on safer seats like Ghaziabad? Yes, that's right. And here the BJP has an E a from Ghaziabad at and he has been given the ticket, replacing the two time MP General VK Singh. So look in 2019, the BJP had won Ghaziabad seat with a huge margin of over five lakh. It was in fact one of the biggest margins in the entire country. But the BJP this time around feels that there is a need to have that demographic balance in terms of the age of various candidates. That's the reason why a new face has been given a chance. But overall, when we were to look at the state of Uttar Pradesh while the BJP is going all out in catchment areas, as you pointed out, rightly wean, particularly the southern India and the western part of India, it is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that its number, which was around 303 in 2019 elections, do not go down. That is the reason why you are seeing prime minister hold this roadshow. There are eight seats which go to polls of Uttar Pradesh in the first phase of 19, which includes NAGINA, BPA and other constituencies. The BJP did well in this belt in 2019, but overall if you remember and were to make a comparison between 2014 and 2019, the overall BJP tally went down because of the alliance of the BSP and the Samajwadi Party, this time around in Pradesh it's a triangular contest. The India bloc is essentially the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in Alliance. The Samajwadi Party has repeatedly been changing its candidates, you know, for the second phase of polls. So there is this concern that is there some kind of fear that there will be no vote transfer between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. On the other hand, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the big pitch certainly has been Ram Temple. The consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayo happened on 22nd of January. So you know, it is a realisation of a dream is what the BJP has been talking about. That it was one of the promises that has been made in the party's manifesto since 1980 1980 was the year when the BJP was formed and since then in every manifesto of the party, in every election we have seen the mention of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and also of abrogation of Article 370. If the first you know, and in this particular tenure there is there has been realisation of both the promises of the BJP, and that is the reason why we are seeing, you know, multiple road shows, multiple campaigning in the form of for, you know, Booth Connect, which is being done by the prime minister himself during the day. In the largely in the early hours, he's holding those video conferencing with the booth workers. Today was also the day when he actually responded to what he said to the Congress Party's manifesto in two public meetings that he has held. He was, he came out, all guns blazing against the Congress manifesto, in which Mr Modi said that the Congress manifesto looks like a, you know, more like a Muslim League kind of a manifesto and also moving away from the centrist politics that the Congress had done for so many years towards the leftist nature of politics. Right, Marin? Also, you mentioned the Ram Mandir and how that has been a part of the BJP's manifesto. In fact, in this particular road show as well, you can see a lot of that Ram Mandir flavour. But whether it is Ghaziabad or Gautam Bud Nagar, all these constituencies that are going to polls in the first few phases do you see these messages resonating with urban voters because Gaza Bath of course, is a commercial town. Commercial establishments all along this particular route where the prime minister is currently also, do you see these messages resonating with urban voters? You know it. It's rather interesting answer that be it the urban or rural voters. When it comes to emotive issues, they respond more or less in a similar fashion. Whether Ghaziabad has seen infrastructure push or not. Yes, it has. We have seen that you know various arterial roads being built in Ghaziabad and you have the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aat firmly standing with the prime minister as well. So we have seen that push, particularly in the NCR region, be it Noida, Greater Noida and other constituencies and also Gaza, where the BJP says that you know these are urban pockets and if the urban pockets vote for the BJP, the rural will be voting on the lines of the Russian and other welfare schemes. So you know the concerns of voters may be different as far as their day to day requirements are. Be it the infrastructure push or the wear is, as we say, Russian in the villages and Shahan, or law and order in the in the urban pockets. But when it comes to emotive issues, they respond more or less in a similar fashion. That's why the Ram Temple in AOA is not something that the prime minister has been speaking about before the first phase because he understands that it's nationalism which will perhaps have a greater, you know, residence with the voters because it's 39 seats in Tamil Nadu which go to polls on 19th. But overall, I think that this issue of Ram Temple and what the BJP has done keeping it, keeping it mind its ideological commitment will be something that we'll be seeing more and more when more seats of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar go to polls. So 120 seats in all, which we are looking at 80 seats in up 40 seats in Bihar, which go to polls in bulk numbers only starting from 3rd, 4th and the fifth and the sixth and the seventh phases. So you know, it's just a small pocket of western Uttar Pradesh where the issues are of the farmers issue. The concerns are very different, which go to polls in this phase, and here it is the alliance which the BJP is hoping will have the Perceptional push, particularly the alliance with rld, which has, you know, Ghaziabad, Bak and other. All these constituencies have a high percentage of the JAT voters and the jars as well, you know. Interestingly, my is a political successor will be starting his campaign tomorrow and there is a lot of anticipation as to what will he be saying in his first public rally? 2019 was a different election completely. But the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is hoping that it will be more of a repeat of 2000 and 14, when different pockets voted very, very differently. And there was no alliance of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP, which was pure arithmetic working for them, in which they won 15 seats, the BSP winning 10 seats of that big number, Big Chunk and the Samajwadi Party winning five
