Congress on Saturday launched its poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh, with party chief Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi flagging off a three-day bus yatra – “27 saal UP behaal” – from the party headquarters in New Delhi.
The yatra, aimed at reaching out to the public and highlighting the alleged failure of successive governments in Uttar Pradesh in the past 27 years ever since the Congress is out of power there, will cover a total distance of 600 kms.
Top Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the general secretary in-charge of party affairs in the state, Sheila Dikshit, the party’s chief ministerial face in the state, and state unit chief Raj Babbar, along with others will travel in the bus that will halt at various places en route Kanpur.
They will also address a number of public meetings and interact with party workers on the way. The yatra will cover four districts each day and will halt at Moradabad on the first day, covering important districts in western Uttar Pradesh.
It will then travel to Shahjahanpur, covering Rampur and Bareilly and on the third day it will cover Hardoi, Kannauj and then end at Kanpur.
Azad said the party will aim to form a government in Uttar Pradesh. The party does not believe in dividing people on religious and caste lines and seek to unite them instead, he said.
The yatra will be followed by a meeting of UP Congress in Lucknow on 29 July that will be attended by Rahul Gandhi.
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad
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