Rahul, Akhilesh to Woo Amethi, Rae Bareli Voters on May 17 as Priyanka Micromanages Campaign

Party managers are planning joint rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav to maximise Congress-SP coordination in Uttar Pradesh and ensure the win of alliance candidates by huge margins.

New Delhi:Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who is contesting the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, will address his first rally on May 13 where his sister Priyanka Gandhi has been micromanaging the campaign. Priyanka Gandhi has been camping in the Gandhi family strongholds RaeBareli and Amethi since May 6 and has addressed several corner meetings since then. On May 11, Priyanka Gandhi took time from her busy schedule in the two key seats to campaign in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar and Telangana’s Chevella.

In Rae Bareli, Rahul is pitted against BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh while in Amethi family loyalist KL Sharma is fighting against Union Minister and BJP nominee Smriti Irani. The Congress managers are also planning joint rallies of Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Amethi and Rae Bareli on May 17 after the success of their joint campaign in Amroha, Kanpur and Kannauj.

“Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Rae Bareli on May 13. He will again campaign, along with Akhilesh Yadav on May 17 in both Amethi and Rae Bareli,” a senior AICC functionary said. Polling in the two key seats would be held on May 20 and campaigning would end on May 18. By that time, Akhilesh Yadav who is contesting from Kannauj against BJP’s Subrat Pathak, would be relatively free and devote more time to the alliance candidates.

For instance, the SP chief will campaign for Congress candidate in Barabanki Tanuj Punia on May 12 and in Jalaun where SP’s Narayan Das Ahirwar is pitted against BJP’s Bhanu Pratap Verma. Before Kannauj polling on May 13, Akhilesh Yadav campaigned aggressively in his seat on May 11. “The joint rallies in Amroha, Kannauj and Kanpur have been successful. The public response has been very good. Surely, joint rallies will take the coordination between the alliance partners ahead and help the alliance candidates win by huge margins,” AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.

According to party insiders, under Priyanka’s guidance, the Congress has launched a massive public contract drive in the two key seats Amethi and Rae Bareli. The two AICC observers for the two seats, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot for Amethi and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel for Rae Bareli have reached there and are contributing to the campaign.

On his part, Baghel discussed the campaign strategy with the Rae Bareli leaders and held several corner meetings in the Dalmau area under the parliamentary constituency. Gehlot interacted with the media in Amethi and said that a party functionary like KL Sharma was sufficient to defeat the Union Minister.

Bihar leader Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who was denied a ticket from the Purnia seat, but contested as an independent candidate, reached Rae Bareli on May 11 to mobilise support for Rahul Gandhi. “Priyanka Gandhi’s campaign has been very aggressive as well as emotional at the same time in the two key seats. She has addressed people at night without electricity and a mike atop a car urging them not to get carried away by the BJP’s slogans. Her personal anecdotes have touched people,” said Pande.