Lucknow, Oct 17 (IANS): With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be addressing 12 meetings in as many districts to woo women and Dalits.

These rallies will be held from October 17 to November 3.

After launching Mission Shakti phase-4 on Saturday -- a UP government initiative to empower women -- Yogi Adityanath is going full throttle to promote the scheme among women and reach out to a half of the population.

An intensive schedule has been drawn up this time not just to teach women self-defence, link them with government schemes, educate them about laws pertaining to women and also to publicise the various pro-government schemes of the Centre and state.

The chief minister will be addressing six meetings in the coming 18 days on women empowerment. Sources in the government said that the aim of these meetings is to reach out to women and speak to them about all the initiatives taken by the government for them and the efforts being made, through schemes like Mission Shakti, to make them financially self-reliant.

To bolster these claims, the government will take recourse to data like the one released by the Periodic Labour Force Survey which has shown that the state’s female labour force participation rate has gone up from 14.2 per cent in 2017-18 to 32.1 per cent in 2022-23.

On the days that he will address rallies on women empowerment, the chief minister will travel to another district to address meetings on Dalits.

“BJP is focussing strongly on drawing Dalits into its fold. The chief minister is leaving nothing to chance and in this phase of campaigning, will be addressing six rallies on Dalits. This is currently the initial phase and more such meetings are to follow after a brief break during Diwali,” said a senior BJP functionary.