Farmers Movement Archive

Priyanka to launch major campaign in UP, 1st rally in Meerut on Sept 29

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra proposes to launch a massive campaign and address a series of public rallies beginning in Meerut on September 29 to connect with the people, including farmers agitating against the Centre’s three new farm laws.Priyanka is expected to make a number of public announcements about the promises her party may make to people in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, according to senior Congress leaders.“Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is expected to make some important announcements about the promises the Congress proposes to make on various fronts. The promises may include scrapping of three farm laws (farmers have been agitating against the three farm laws since), free power, waiving loans of farmers and about the party’s stand on some other issues concerning the people,” said a senior Congress leader on condition of anonymity.Priyanka, who presided over a meeting with senior party leaders via video conferencing on Monday, also proposes to address public meetings at a number of other places that include Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gorakhpur, the Lok Sabha seat that chief minister Yogi Adityanath represented as an MP, and in the Bundelkhand region.“Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is scheduled to address mega public rally at Meerut. She will also address rallies in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Mahoba and a number of other places. She may address a public rally in Varanasi on October 2 or 3. We will get details about her public rallies soon,” said another senior leader.Priyanka, who reviewed the Congress’s preparedness for the 2022 assembly election in Lucknow recently, had asked the state party leaders to launch Pratigya Yatras covering a distance of about 12,000 km to span nearly all the assembly seats across Uttar Pradesh. The party has worked out a detailed programme of the proposed yatras that would cover most parts of the districts during the Navratri celebrations the next month.“If the Congress wants to get some results this time, it should begin implementing certain welfare programmes using party funds. Making announcements at public rallies may not work,” said Professor SK Dwivedi, former head of the department of political science, Lucknow University.The Congress has been targeting the BJP governments in the state and the Centre over various issues that include inflation, unemployment, crime against women and issues concerning farmers. It has also raised issues like Rafale and Pegasus in the recent past.The Congress had contested the 2017 assembly election in alliance with the Samajwadi Party. As the alliance experiment failed to work for both the parties with the BJP sweeping the 2017 polls, the short-term alliance ended soon after the polls. The Congress won only seven seats in the 403-member state assembly, getting only 6.25 per cent votes in the 2017 assembly elections. Its vote share on the seats contested with the SP support was, however, 22.09 per cent in 2017 polls. The Samajwadi Party had won 47 seats while the BSP got 19 seats.

Hindustan Times

20-09-2021

Lucknow