To reverse decades of declining vote share in Uttar Pradesh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will kick off a fresh round of campaigns and lead a pad yatra in the State’s Saharanpur district on Monday.
On Saturday, senior Congress leaders gathered in Noida to devise a new strategy for the State, which is going to polls in 2017. Congress leaders from the State are known to have suggested that the high command should not form political alliances in the State, assuring that the party had gained a substantial foothold.
Though several newspapers reported on Sunday that the Congress plans to “go alone” in the elections, Madhusudan Mistry, Congress General Secretary and in-charge of U.P., told The Hindu that it was “too early to decide” whether the party should look for partners or fight on its own.
Instead, Mr. Mistry said, the Congress high command has decided to open a new membership drive and mobilise the entire party apparatus in the State to gauge the people’s insecurities that have grown during the current Samajwadi Party regime. “We will reach out to sugarcane farmers who have been suffering for several years now. The government is not buying their stocks and that has pushed them to starvation,” Mr.Mistry said. “And we will reach out to people and create a public perception against our opponents.”
Apart from 20 senior Congress leaders from the State, former Union ministers Salman Khurshid, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Mohsina Kidwai and Jitin Prasada also participated in the meeting. They urged the State leaders to establish ties with local activists and contractual government employees and involve them in canvassing votes.
“We want to build up an aggressive campaign around the issues of broken law and order situation, bad implementation of programmes, such as NREGA, Mid Day Meals, etc,” said a senior Congress leader.
