Sonia sounds UP poll bugle, flags off 3-day bus yatra from Delhi
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday formally launched the party’s campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh by flagging off a three-day bus yatra from Delhi to Kanpur.
Titled ‘27 Saal UP Behaal’, the yatra intends to cover 600 km of the state each day. It was slated to pass through Ghaziabad, Hapur, Amroha and Moradabad districts on the first day, followed by Shahjahanpur, Rampur and Bareilly on the second. The bus yatra will cover Hardoi and Kannauj before culminating in Kanpur on the final day.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders watched as the bus was flagged off from the party’s national headquarters at 24, Akbar Road amid chanting of Vedic hymns.
Senior leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sheila Dikshit, Raj Babbar and Pramod Tiwari will address the yatra en route. The plan, according to Congress leaders, is to reach out to every voter at least three or four times in the run-up to the polls – scheduled for FebruaryMarch next year.
As the yatra passed through Ghaziabad that morning, many Congress leaders – including chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit, party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad and state unit chief Raj Babbar – visited the residence of a party councillor who was reportedly murdered for opposing liquor smuggling and anti-social activities in the Vijay Nagar area. Chote Lal, 72, was beaten to death with rods and sticks while he was sleeping on a bench outside his house on the night of July 20.
“This incident is a matter of great concern. We will meet the chief minister to demand compensation for the councillor’s family and immediate arrest of the accused,” said Dikshit. However, she took ill as the day wore on, and had to return to Delhi from Hapur.
Uttar Pradesh Congress campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh said the yatra will be followed by a meeting of the state unit – chaired by Rahul – in Lucknow on July 29. Sonia Gandhi will participate in a road show at Varanasi on August 2. “The aim is to highlight the failures and misgovernance by the SP, BSP and the BJP governments in UP for the last 27 years,” Singh said.