Congress plans big to take UP by storm

The Congress plans to virtually strafe the electoral battle-field of Uttar Pradesh from next month. The party strategy involves several yatras starting at the same time from different places, a series of public rallies to be addressed by Sonia Gandhi and an elaborate “jan sampark abhiyan” (public contact campaign) by Rahul Gandhi.

Party sources say the blue-print of the party’s strategy would be targeted and precise, and that it has already been logged in on Rahul’s laptop.

According to the party’s gameplan, the state has been divided into 10 zones, each covering about seven districts and 40 seats. Five Union ministers from the state have been made co-ordinators in charge of two zones each. The ministers given this charge are Sriprakash Jaiswal, Salman Khursheed, Jitin Prasad, RPN Singh and Pradeep Jain. The five will begin ‘yatras’ from their zones at the same time, and Rahul Gandhi will lead these yatras for two days each. Rahul is reported to be starting an extensive ‘yatra’ through UP from November 10.

Party sources say the Congress leader could begin the party’s election campaign from Lucknow, signaling a direct challenge to Mayawati. Interestingly, Rahul will also devote quite some time campaigning in the strongholds of both BSP chief Mayawati and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. The party is also planning a blitzkrieg of 15 rallies to be addressed by Sonia Gandhi in December.

“In this way, we would be able to deal with different regions in a more focused manner,” says Union minister RPN Singh, who is in charge of the Lucknow zone.