As the political heat rises in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the next year's Assembly election, BJP's 'chanakya' Amit Shah is in Lucknow to give a fillip to the party's poll preparations.
The home minister on Friday kicked off a membership drive to get more people into the BJP family ahead of the polls.
Amit Shah will also hold extensive meetings on candidates for the 2022 polls with senior leaders during his two-day visit.
So what is Amit Shah's masterplan for the big 2022 battle:
The BJP has set a target of 350 seats this time. The party strategy is to corner 50% of votes in UP.
The state has around 15 crore voters and the party is eyeing 7.5 crore votes.
This is where the new membership drive comes in. BJP already claims to have 2.5 cr members in the state.
Amit Shah has set a target of 1.5 crore new members for the state BJP leaders ahead of the elections. With 4 crore registered members, party aims to cross the 7 crore votes mark.
Second, alliances in Purvanchal: While former ally OP Rajbhar has defected to the SP, the BJP has sealed its alliances with the Nishad Party and Apna Dal in Purvanchal. Both the parties have pockets of influence in Eastern UP.
Thirdly, the BJP aims to keep Caste equations intact. The party is trying to woo the non-Jatav Dalits, keep its core base of the forward castes with the party and get more non-Yadav OBCs in its fold.