Lucknow: Congressmen in Uttar Pradesh are hopeful that party leader Rahul Gandhi will devote substantial time in Uttar Pradesh during the second phase of his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Though the date and schedule of BJY 2.0 is still being finalised, the state unit is confident that Rahul Gandhi will tour a major part of the state in the second leg of the yatra.
Rahul has stayed away from Uttar Pradesh for almost four-and-a-half years after he lost his Amethi seat in the 2019 general elections.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) President Brijlal Khabri said, “Though things are fluid 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 leg of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi had covered just three districts — Ghaziabad, Baghpat and Shamli.
The Congress leader had walked for over 130 km from Ghaziabad, and covered parts of Shamli and Baghpat from where he entered Haryana. Questions were raised on his brief visit to UP.
Rahul Gandhi has maintained a distance from party affairs in the state ever since his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed in charge of UP in 2019 for undisclosed reasons.
Party sources said that Rahul Gandhi was not comfortable with his sister’s coterie, but did not wish to confront her on this issue.
“Almost everyone in UP Congress has a problem with Priyanka’s coterie and whenever we tried to approach Rahul with the problems here, he told us ‘Talk to Priyanka’, but Priyanka was not willing to listen. This led to an exodus from the party, which has hit rock bottom in Uttar Pradesh,” said a veteran Congress leader.
The UP unit of the Congress, sources said, has not even decided its role in the second phase of the yatra.
“Preparations, if any, are not known to anyone in the party. We have not been involved and neither have we been informed. There is no move to mobilise the party workers ahead of the event,” said a former Congress MLA.
However, he said that if Rahul Gandhi tours Uttar Pradesh, he would revive the party organisation to a great extent and the cadres will also be mobilised.
“His mere presence here will lift the party from the realms of despair,” he said.
In the changed political scenario after the formation of Opposition’s INDIA, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary could also join Rahul Gandhi in Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0 in UP.
Both the leaders had kept away from BJY in its first leg.
According to a party source, “Internal analysis indicates that the SP-RLD-Congress can swing votes in favour of the coalition in seats covering districts like Saharanpur, Baghpat, Rampur, Bareilly, Badaun and Aligarh in the west, and Deoria, Maharajganj, Ghazipur, Azamgarh and Kushinagar in the east. Rahul’s itinerary may include these districts.”
UP Congress leaders also want that Rahul Gandhi should spend more than two weeks in UP in the second phase and the route could cover around two-dozen parliamentary constituencies.
The second phase of the yatra is said to begin from Porbandar in Gujarat and end in Agartala (Tripura), sources said.
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