Yogi holds closed-door meet with party workers, discusses bypolls

Ghaziabad: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday held a 45-minute closed door meeting with party cadres and BJP office bearers in the city and encouraged them to draw up a plan for retaining the Ghaziabad assembly seat.Ghaziabad is one of the 10 assembly seats in UP that will go for bypolls. It fell vacant after its MLA Atul Garg was elected to the Lok Sabha in the general election earlier this year. “CM’s visit to Ghaziabad was aimed at checking the party’s preparedness ahead of the by-election,” MP Atul Garg, who shared the stage with Yogi, at Hindi Bhawan said.The MP said that the chief minister spoke to office bearers and sought information on the state of party affairs.“Everyone from the parkosth head of various party organisations and party workers’ suggestions and opinions were sought. In the end, he seemed satisfied with the working of the party, especially in the backdrop of the by-election, which is likely to take place after November,” Garg said.Though BJP retained Ghaziabad in the Lok Sabha election, the opposition INDIA bloc won 42 seats across UP and brought the saffron party’s tally down to 33.For BJP, winning the bypolls will be a matter of prestige. The party has already started deliberations over the choice of candidates, including Ghaziabad. In the 2022 assembly by-election for ten seats, the Samajwadi Party had an edge and won five of the 10. BJP held on to three — Ghaziabad, Phulpur and Khair.