New Delhi: The Congress is hopeful of repeating its 2009 performance when the party won several seats in eastern Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the last two phases of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls on May 25 and June 1. Of the 14 seats going to polls in Uttar Pradesh on May 25 the prominent ones include Prayagraj, Ambedkarnagar, Shrawasti, Domariyaganj, Basti, Azamgargh, Jaunpur and Bhadohi while the key ones among the seats going to polls on June 1 include Kushinagar, Bansgaon, Deoria, Maharajganj, Gorakhpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli and Varanasi.
According to party insiders, the Congress has contested the 2009 elections on its own, but has an alliance with the Samajwadi Party in 2024. “The Congress-SP alliance is going strong across the state. I completed my tour of all the 80 Lok Sabha seats with a visit to Deoria on May 23. I have felt a mood for change among the voters. There is large-scale unrest among the farmers and high unemployment among the youth in the eastern areas. Our promise of government jobs and loan waiver for both these segments are going in favour of the alliance and will give us several seats in the region,” AICC in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
Keeping in mind the focus on the eastern areas, Rahul Gandhi and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav recently campaigned jointly in Prayagraj where Congress nominee Ujjawal Raman Singh is pitted against BJP’s Niraj Tripathi. In the 2019 national polls, Akhilesh Yadav won from the SP stronghold Azamgarh, but later resigned from the seat in 2022 after he became an MLA and leader of opposition in the UP Assembly.
The Congress will now deploy star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi in Gorakhpur, the home town of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of PM Modi. On May 25, Priyanka Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav will stage a joint roadshow in Varanasi to seek support for Congress nominee Ajay Rai, also the state unit chief.
“Priyanka Gandhi’s rally in Gorakhpur and her joint roadshow with Dimple Yadav will certainly have an impact on the eastern UP areas,” said Pande. On May 25, Akhilesh Yadav will campaign for SP candidate in Gorakhpur Kajal Nishad and Congress candidate Akhilesh Pratap Singh in Deoria. Congress leader Aman Mani Tripathi, who was eyeing a ticket in Maharajganj is campaigning for party candidate Virendra Chaudhary.
According to party insiders, a joint roadshow of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav may be later staged in Varanasi before campaigning ends. “When Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Nyay Yatra entered UP from Chandauli, we took out a massive rally, which was very successful. People just came on their own,” said Pande.
According to party insiders, in Pratapgarh, Kaushambi and Mirzapur areas local strongman Raghuraj Pratap Singh is backing the SP candidates, which will be of help to the alliance. To counter the influence of BSP in the eastern belt, Akhilesh Yadav has been alleging that Mayawati’s party was hand in glove with the ruling BJP whose message of 400 plus seats had generated fears of changing the Constitution and tinkering with the reservations among the marginalized sections.
“The SC/ST voters in the eastern area are particularly concerned about threats to the reservation available to them under the Constitution. The BJP’s repeated claims of 400 seats has put them off,” said Pande.
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