Rahul to embark on farmers’ march

Bid to galvanise Congress cadres and broaden its base among farming communities

After a farmers’ rally, Rahul Gandhi will now take out a farmers’ march to reach out to farmers in the backdrop of the agrarian crisis.

As Congress is seeking to make land acquisition a major issue to arrest its sliding fortunes, Gandhi’s major public outreach plan is aimed at galvanising the party cadres and broadening the party base among farming communities.

Party sources in the party said the farmers’ march could begin either from Vidarbha in Maharashtra or some district including Medak from Telangana, the two regions, which have been in the news for farmer suicides.

Gandhi will be visiting a number of districts with farmer distress in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab and Telangana.

In Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi could travel to Bundelkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

While the Congress vicepresident had in past also taken up the issue of Bundelkhand ensuring a package for the region during the UPA government’s region, eastern Uttar Pradesh, another region of farmer distress is bordering Bihar where polls are scheduled later this year.

When contacted, AICC Communication Department incharge Randeep Surjewala said, ”Rahul ji will be taking Kisan Padyatra [farmers’ march] in days to come. He is going to visit all states, which have recorded farmer distress. Details of his programme are yet to be finalised.”

Gandhi’s march is being seen as an exercise to connect the party with grass roots at a time when it faces an uphill task of revival after its worst-ever debacle in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which its tally came down to a drastic 44 from 206 it had got in the 2009 general elections.

Its woes did not end there as the defeat in Lok Sabha polls was followed in by a series of defeats in state elections.

Congress, which was ruling in Haryana and Rajasthan on its own and Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand in alliance, lost badly in assembly elections there in the last one year. The party sees the momentum generated by opposition protests to NDA’s land bill and the agrarian crisis as an opportunity to broaden its base among the farming communities.

Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh had drawn parallel of the agitation on farmers’ issues with the historic Chikmaglur bye-elections, which had begun the Congress comeback.