As Sonia Gandhi embarks on campaigning, Raj Babbar hopes for a 'miracle' Congress win in UP

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar on Tuesday expressed hope that there will be a "miracle" in favour of his party in the upcoming assembly election in the state.

"The people of Uttar Pradesh have always been springing surprises - be it 2004, 2007, 2012 or 2017 - this time they are going to do a miracle in favour of Congress," he said.

Babbar is in Varanasi to take part in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's road show in the Lok Sabha constituency that Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents.

PTI

Responding to questions from mediapersons if road shows and other programmes would help the party at the hustings, he said, "Rest assured...we are among the people...Sonia is here to have darshan and take blessings of Baba Vishwanath in this holy month of Shravan." This is the third major programme of the party in the past few days after "27 saal-UP behal" Delhi-Kanpur bus yatra and Rahul Gandhi's interactive session with booth level workers in Lucknow.

Earlier, Sonia arrived in Varanasi to a rousing reception by party workers for a six-km-long road show. Her cavalcade was accompanied by 5,000 strong contingent of motorcyclists from Lal Bahadur Shastri Babatpur airport to the circuit house.

AFP Photo

Huge banners and buntings have been put up by party to make the roadshow successful and launch the poll campaign in the eastern region of the poll-bound state. BJP did not fare very well in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh in the last assembly election and Congress hopes to take advantage make inroads.

BJP, which swept the 2014 national election in the state winning 71 of its 80 Lok Sabha seats, hopes to extend that victory to the 2017 UP assembly elections.