The UPCC is gearing up for a hard task this week. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Lucknow on December 7 and 8 on a special mission. He will neither undertake a road show and nor will he address any rally. Mr Gandhi will simply interact with the Assembly candidates on a one-to-one basis and take stock of poll preparations.
He will also meet district and city presidents, functionaries of the frontal organisations and other monitoring cells of UPA’s flagship schemes in an attempt to assess ground realities in the party organisation.
The UPCC is apparently nervous — more so, after the manner in which Mr Gandhi pulled up ministers from Uttar Pradesh for their laidback attitude and inability to move out into the field and confining themselves to their plush offices in Delhi.
“For the first time, Mr Gandhi seemed visibly angry during his meeting on UP in Delhi on Thursday. We will definitely have to get our act together before his Lucknow visit or some heads may roll. The UPCC staff has been asked to get everything in order and ensure that everything goes off smoothly,” said a UPCC leader.
According to party sources, Mr Gandhi is upset over the manner in which the Congress in UP has allowed other rival parties to turn FDI and Lokpal bill into a poll issue.
“The Congress should have made Mayawati’s corruption and criminalisation into a poll issue because these directly concern the common man. Instead, the party has conveniently allowed the BSP and SP to localise central issues like Lokpal and FDI in UP. Mr Gandhi may even summon press releases issued by the UPCC during recent weeks to get an insight into the party’s focus here,” said a senior Congress leader from Delhi.
The Congress in UP has over a dozen spokesman, each of whom works independently in his or her own space without bothering to coordinate with each other or the Central leaders. Press releases related to private functions, like Kayastha Sammelans and University Alumni functions, are issued from the UPCC email ID simply because one of the spokespersons is linked to these organisations.