UP Congressmen to visit Dalit homes, à la Rahul

More grief awaits Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati. Till now it was only Rahul Gandhi who was breaking bread with Dalits and sleeping over in their homes. Now, the entire UP Congress unit has decided to emulate its leader on Gandhi Jayanti, which falls on October 2.

The idea is the brainchild of UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi. “Rahulji has shown us the way, and with his inspiration we will move ahead,” she told reporters on Wednesday. According to the plan, thousands of party workers and leaders would fan out across the length and breadth of the state, visit Dalit-dominated villages, eat with them and spend the night at their homes.

This is precisely what Rahul does. A few days ago, he caused the Mayawati government much heartburn by driving off to a Dalit-dominated village in eastern UP without informing the state administration and police. The state government had lodged a complaint with the Centre saying such surprise visits cause security concerns.

 “If we need to rejuvenate the Congress in UP, our workers and leaders will have to establish direct contact with villagers,” Joshi said. “The culture of air-conditioned rooms and drawing room discussions should be done away with,” she said during a meeting of party leaders at the Congress office here on Wednesday.

Joshi said if the Congress wished to perform well in the 2012 assembly election, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s Dalit votebank should be dented.