Meerut (UP):Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick start the Lok Sabha election campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the third consecutive time from Meerut with a rally on March 31.

Scheduled to be held near the Central Potato Research Institute in Modipuram, the rally being jointly organised by the BJP with its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal, will witness RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary sharing the dais with PM Modi for the first time.

In 2014, the PM started the campaign from Meerut, which significantly influenced the election results, with BJP sweeping all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in western Uttar Pradesh. He once again launched the campaign with an election rally from Meerut in 2019, but this time BJP secured only seven out of the 14 seats.

While Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) clinched four seats, three went to Samajwadi Party (SP). The efficacy of Modi’s election rally from the land of Meerut in 2024 remains to be seen, especially considering BJP’s alliance with the RLD and the sentiments of voters in the Jaat belt towards this alliance, a determining factor only revealed by the upcoming election results.

In 2019, BJP won Meerut, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar and Bulandshahr seats. BSP emerged victorious in Saharanpur, Nagina, Bijnor, and Amroha, while SP secured Rampur, Moradabad and Sambhal seats.

It may be noted that BJP is eyeing the target of sweeping all the 80 seats in the most populous state UP with a slogan of ‘Abki Baar 400 Paar’.