Even as the Congress is seriously watching the developments in the Samajwadi Party (SP), vice-president Rahul Gandhi is set on another ‘yatra’ focused on Dalits to drum up support in the hinterland ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections next year. Encouraged by this ‘Kisan Yatra’ where he covered 3,500km and 48 districts in 26 days, Gandhi’s second round of tour to focus entirely on Dalits is scheduled to start from November 11 to last till January next year.
At a recent meeting of party strategists, it was conveyed that farmer focus was not enticing the urban population as well as landless downtrodden. There was also a concern that Congress cadres are not able to keep up the tempo, generated by road shows and street. To keep up energy levels, it was decided to carry out "Rahul Sandesh Yatra". The second phase of this yatra will start from November 2 to 10 to cover all districts across the state. During Gandhi’s Dalit outreach, suggestions have come to arrange block-level meetings, intensive mass-contact programmes to come up with local manifestos.
Contours of the Congress strategy after Diwali festival were discussed by the senior party leaders in a meeting chaired for the first time by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (44) and a decision was taken to focus on the urban voters and Dalits not touched by Rahul during his Kisaan Yatra. Party leaders say, Dalits together with Brahmins and Muslims used to be party’s traditional combination to win elections. In a bid to woo back the Dalits lost by the Congress to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, the party has identified 8,500 villages that have at last 1,000 Dalits or have more than 50% Dalit population. The plan is to send 200 teams of three members each fan out to these villages and organise a day-long "Dalit Sabha" to mobilise the people. The plan also included door-to-door campaign with the slogan "Shiksha, Suraksha, Swabhiman, Congress ke saat, Daliton ka Utthan." A similar Dalit overreach programme is planned in Punjab as well as a counter to the Jat community aligned with the Akali Dal of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Insiders said that leaders at the meeting chaired by Priyanka said that their ground reports suggest that people were asking them to forge a Bihar-type alliance to give confidence to its voters that it was in a winning combination.
The meeting was attended by senior leaders from Uttar Pradesh, in addition to general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad and state chief Raj Babbar, chief minister candidate Sheila Dikshit and party secretaries. "The secretaries and a few senior vice-presidents conveyed to Priyanka that people felt the Congress should forge an alliance as standing up alone all of a sudden would be difficult,” they said. Meanwhile, the Congress has refuses to comment on the SP feud, even as many leaders have been arguing to approach the chief minister Akhilesh for an alliance to take advantage of his good image.
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