UP Congress hopes, this time Rahul Gandhi will spend more time in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’
Lucknow (IANS). Congress workers in Uttar Pradesh are hopeful that party leader Rahul Gandhi will spend enough time in Uttar Pradesh during the second phase of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. During his last ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the Congress leader had visited only three districts of UP.
The date and schedule of the second phase of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is yet to be finalised, but the state unit is confident that Rahul Gandhi will cover a major part of the state in the second phase of the yatra.
After losing the Amethi seat in the 2019 general election, Rahul stayed away from Uttar Pradesh for almost four and a half years.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Brijlal Khabri said, “While things are volatile at the moment, party workers and the state leadership have urged Rahul Gandhi to spend more time in UP in the second phase of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. “
In the first phase of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi visited only three districts of UP, which include Ghaziabad, Baghpat and Shamli.
The Congress leader walked 130 km from Ghaziabad to reach Shamli, parts of Baghpat. After this he directly entered Haryana. Many questions were raised regarding the short visits of the leader in UP.
Ever since Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed in-charge of UP in 2019, Rahul Gandhi has maintained a distance from party affairs in the state.
A veteran Congress leader said, “Almost everyone in the UP Congress has a problem with Priyanka’s circle and whenever we tried to approach Rahul about the problems here, he told us, ‘talk to Priyanka’, but Priyanka was not ready to listen. Due to this there was an exodus of people from the party.
Sources said the UP unit of the Congress has not decided its role in the second phase of the yatra.
A former Congress MLA said, “If there is any preparation, no one in the party is aware of it. We are not involved in this nor have we been informed. No steps have been taken to prepare party workers ahead of the event.
He said, if Rahul Gandhi visits Uttar Pradesh, he will revive the party to a great extent and the workers will also mobilize. “His presence here alone will pull the party out of the realm of despair,” he said.
Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary may also join Rahul Gandhi in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0’ in UP in a changed political scenario after the formation of the opposition alliance ‘India’.
Both the leaders had distanced themselves from the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in the first phase.
According to a party source, ‘Internal analysis indicates that the SP-RLD-Congress alliance will win on seats covering districts like Saharanpur, Baghpat, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun and Aligarh and Deoria, Maharajganj, Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Kushinagar. can vote in favor of. These districts can also be included in Rahul’s travel program.
UP Congress leaders also want Rahul Gandhi to spend more than two weeks in UP in the second phase and cover about two dozen parliamentary constituencies.
Sources said that the second leg of the yatra is said to start from Porbandar in Gujarat and end in Agartala (Tripura).
