NEW DELHI, 28 August — The main opposition Congress party president, Sonia Gandhi, is likely to kick off her party’s election campaign in the politically crucial northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) with six “Lucknow chalo” yatras (rallies) which are scheduled to begin on Sept. 10 and culminate in Lucknow on Sept. 25.
These “yatras” are set to begin simultaneously from Ghaziabad, Ballia, Benaras, Saharanpur, Jhansi and Khushinagar and each of them will be led by a Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and include top state Congress leaders. These leaders will travel to every corner of the state by road and reach the state capital by Sept. 25.
The party sources said, a major rally in Lucknow was to mark the conclusion of the “yatras.” Though it is yet to be finalized as to which of these yatras will include Sonia, it is expected that she will be joining at least two of them.
Sonia had conceded a few months ago that her party was facing a difficult battle in UP. She had stressed the need to strengthen the organizational structure at the state, district and block levels as the first step toward the revival of the party in the state.
In the run up to the UP Assembly elections, this will be the first major program of the Congress chief.
Apart from senior leaders who would be taking part in the yatras, four Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states — Digvijay Singh (Madhya Pradesh), Sheila Dixit (Delhi), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), and Ajit Jogi (Chhatissgarh) would also help the party.
