The party is all set to launch its election campaign at Nadeshar area in Varanasi, where a rally would be addressed by Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and other central leaders on May 19.
Encouraged with the party's performance in the recently concluded assembly elections in four states, the Congress has set its eyes on Uttar Pradesh, where state assembly election are due next year.
"The mandate in favour of Congress and its coalition in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal is a clear indication that the bogey of inflation and corruption by the political opponents has been rejected by the electorate and it would be repeated in Uttar Pradesh also," Uttar Pradesh Congress Committe (UPCC) president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.
She said that the results in these states as well as Tamil Nadu goes on to prove that people approve of UPA policies as also the action taken by the party, punishing even its own leaders on issue of corruption as well as the capability of the electorate to identify the culprits.
The party is all set to launch its election campaign at Nadeshar area in Varanasi, where a rally would be addressed by Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and other central leaders on May 19, Joshi said.
The rally, to be held on the second day of the two-day PCC conference, scheduled on May 18 and May 19, is being organised close on the heels of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi's rally in Banda district of Bundelkhand region.
"It's the most conducive time when Congress has a bright chances of making a comeback in UP after a gap of more than two decades," party spokesperson Subodh Srivastava said.
"The results of three state assembly elections -Assam, West Bengal and Kerala, and Gandhi taking the lead on farmers' issue in Bhatta Parsaul, which has evoked a sharp reaction from the political opponents could build up the momentum required before the assembly elections," another party spokesperson Virendra Madan said.
Since 1989, when the party was voted out of power, Congress' tally in the legislative assembly had been on the decline - from more than 200 MLAs to mere 21 MLAs in 2011.
There is a growing realisation among the people in the state that it is time Congress be given a chance as the non-Congress governments had failed on the expectations of the people in the last 22 years, Madan said, adding that the party has to capitalise on the opportunity now.
He mentioned that during past 22 years, the state has experienced every possible combination of three main parties besides their own respective governments and found that their policies and programmes are not all pervasive.
"All of them had chalked policies either with an eye on any particular section of society or to pit one section against the other," Srivastava said.
He said that the Congress even though not having government in the state for long, had been working for the uplift of all sections of society.
"Bundelkhand package of Rs7,500 crore is for development and Rahul Gandhi's fight for farmers in Bhatta Parsaul is also for an issue which will benefit all of them," he said.
Rahul-led agitation for the farmers has also lended teeth to the ongoing preparations of the party under which it has already held about 175 conventions at various district and assembly segments in the state, Srivastava said.
About 300 more such conventions would he held soon with central leaders participating in it, besides region wise rallies planned for Saharanpur, Bareilly and Sitapur soon, the spokesperson added.
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