RAHUL TO MOUNT CAREER’S MOST INTENSE CAMPAIGN FOR UP POLLS
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will stay in Uttar Pradesh for a minimum of 20-25 days within two months as part of his extensive campaign plan for the poll-bound state.
This will be the first time that the Congress vice-president will undertake such an extensive campaign. He will kick off his programme from Deoria in Gorakhpur division of the eastern part of the state on September 6, Congress sources said, adding that there will be a short break in between.
Gandhi’s “never-seen-before” campaign plan was finalised at Friday’s meeting of party’s Uttar Pradesh coordination and campaign committee. During the course of his political career, which began in 2004 when he got elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Amethi, the forty-five-year-old leader has never campaigned in any pollbound state for 20-25 days at a stretch. The maximum time he has spent in a poll-bound state was during the 2012 assembly elections in UP when he addressed back-toback rallies in Gorakhpur, Deoria, Ballia, Mau and Azamgarh districts in five days at a stretch.
The campaign saw Gandhi addressing 211 public meetings in total across UP through the course of 48 days from November 2011 to February 2012, which was a record of sorts at the time. However, the party failed to cash in on Gandhi’s high-voltage campaign and ended up winning just 28 seats.
After Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s impressive road show in Varanasi on August 2, poll strategist Prashant Kishor had told a few party leaders that was just a preview of his grand campaign plan. In another development, the Congress received a shot in the arm when Aditi Singh, the daughter of independent legislator from Rae Bareli Akhilesh Singh, joined the party along with her supporters in New Delhi on Friday.