Though Rahul Gandhi remains the lynchpin of the Congress campaign, the party has rushed everyone of consequence to the state for campaigning.
NEW DELHI: It is crunch time for India’s grand old party, the Congress, in Uttar Pradesh, and its all hands on deck. Though Rahul Gandhi remains the lynchpin of the Congress campaign, with elections having reached the half mark, the party has rushed everyone of consequence to the state for campaigning.
During the course of his campaign, Rahul Gandhi has made a pitch for the youth, asking them to to move away from caste-based parties. To buttress his efforts, the political managers of the Congress party have decided to deploy first-timers like Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, and Dependra Hooda. They have been roused from the cool confines of their air-conditioned homes in Lutyen’s Delhi and have been asked to sweat it out in the dust bowls of Uttar Pradesh. Sachin Pilot campaigned extensively in the farmlands of western UP, particularly in areas with a sizable Gujjar and Muslim electorate. He has now been deployed in eastern UP. Scindia has been ‘heli-hopping’ from city to city trying to influence the youth to support the Congress party.
Most of the young leaders deployed in the campaigning are first-time MPs, save Jyotiraditya Scindia, and this has been a baptism by fire for most of them. Jitin Prasada learnt the ropes watching his late father Jitendra Prasada micro mange elections. Now, he has been entrusted with the tasking of persuading UP’s youth, particularly the Brahmins, to give the Congress another chance. Dependra Hooda, the MP from Haryana, is drawing on his father Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s new-found standing amongst the Jats to get them to move to the Congress.
For most, the experience is proving to be well worth its while. “UP is unique in many ways, it’s a huge challenge,” says Sachin Pilot. Though he represents the Dausa Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan, his parents, the late Rajesh pilot and Rama Pilot, hail from Bulansdshehar in UP and command a considerable following amongst the farmers there. The party has also deployed former CMs N D Tewari, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Digvijay Singh and Ashok Ghelot for the campaigning.
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