The Samajwadi Party is already halfway through its first phase of campaigning. The BJP will be plunging into the campaign next week. The BSP has also launched its campaign on a low key. The Congress, however, will launch its campaign in the first week of November with yatras led by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.
Talking to reporters, UPCC spokesman, Subodh Srivastava, said that in the first phase, Mr Gandhi will take out yatras for roughly 40 days.
The Congress has divided UP into four zones — east, central, west and Bundelkhand — and Mr Gandhi is expected to give 10-day time to each zone, covering majority of the assembly segments. During the yatras, he will also meet party workers and interact with the common people.
Mr Gandhi is the biggest star campaigner that the party has and with Mrs Sonia Gandhi unlikely to campaign extensively due to health issues, the campaign burden will fall completely on the shoulders of the young leader.
Though almost every Congress candidate is seeking a meeting by Mr Gandhi in his or her constituency, party strategists are trying to make sure that he visits only those constituencies where Congress candidates are in a winning position.
“Mr Gandhi will certainly visit constituencies where candidates need an extra push to reach the victory line. As a party also, the Congress leaders will concentrate their energies on all such constituencies. This is a crucial election for the Congress and we do not wish to waste our energy on constituencies where we re not strong,” said a senior party leader.
The Congress is apparently planning Mr Gandhi’s yatras in UP around the same time when Anna Hazare is expected to undertake his fast in the state.
“Mr Rahul Gandhi will focus firmly on development, rather lack of it in UP, and the need for good governance. He will tell the people that corruption will automatically get curbed if the principle of good governance is applied. He is not going to lock horns with Anna and his team but will quietly nullify the brouhaha created by Team Anna,” said a senior AICC leader while talking to this correspondent on phone from Delhi.
Congress managers are confident that Mr Hazare will not have much of an impact in UP where issues are completely different.
“If one talks of corruption, then the Mayawati government is the biggest example of it. In UP, people want to get rid of non-Congress government that have encouraged criminalization and corruption over the past two decades and want a total change,” the AICC leader said.
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Cong echoes pranab views
Age Correspondent
New Delhi, Oct. 5
The Congress on Wednesday said Mr Rahul Gandhi is the “future” of the party and the country, echoing senior leader Pranab Mukherjee’s sentiments that he is going to be a “new leader” of the party. Responding to questions on Mr Mukherjee’s statement whether it could be interpreted as projecting him as the next PM candidate, Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi said Mr Gandhi is the “future of the Congress and future of the country”.
“Rahul is leader even now,” he said about the 42-year-old AICC general secretary.