New Delhi: The Congress is focusing big time on the party’s revival in Uttar Pradesh after the INDIA bloc booster, which won more than half of the 80 parliamentary seats. According to party insiders, while former party chief Rahul Gandhi is likely to retain his Rae Bareli seat over Wayanad in Kerala as part of the focus on UP, the grand old party will launch a statewide voter connect programme to expand its ground presence ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls.
“We will conduct a thanksgiving yatra in all the 403 assembly seats of the state from June 11 to 15 to take the message of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to the people” AICC in-charge of UP Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
On June 4, the Lok Sabha poll results day, the Congress-SP alliance had stunned the ruling BJP by winning 43/80 seats, which played a key role in keeping the saffron party 32 seats short of a simple majority in Parliament.
Out of the 43 seats, the SP which contested 63 seats won 37 seats while the Congress which contested 17 seats won 6.
According to an internal assessment, the INDIA bloc tally could have been up by over a dozen seats where the BSP candidates indirectly helped the BJP.
“The people rejected the BJP majorly and supported the opposition alliance which flagged issues like high unemployment, high price rise, women’s empowerment, reforming the education and the exam system in a big way. We will assure the people that we will keep raising their issues,” said Pande.
Congress insiders said if the Lok Sabha results were to be assessed in assembly seat terms, the INDIA bloc had got a lead of 217 seats against the 181 seats of the NDA. Further, the SP had a lead of 178 seats, Congress 38 seats and TMC 1 seat.
Keeping these projections in mind, the alliance partners have decided to expand their ground presence while keeping the broader focus on the INDIA bloc.
“The projections mean that there is room for our expansion but we will have to work hard and be more aggressive. The impact of our win has started to show as the state government is suddenly talking about filling up the posts which have been lying vacant for years,” said a senior AICC functionary.
“Though the 2027 assembly polls have not been discussed within the alliance, the focus of INDIA bloc on protecting the rights of the marginalized sections and safeguarding the Constitution will remain,” he said.
Party insiders said a hint of the UP focus had come on June 4 itself when both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi specially thanked the state’s voters for displaying their political understanding.
Pande, who held INDIA bloc coordination meetings on all the 80 Lok Sabha seats, has conveyed the greetings of the Gandhis to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who is equally keen to work together with the grand old party.
In the previous 2019 polls, the Congress could win only 1 seat and the SP 5 in UP. In the 2022 assembly polls, the SP won 111 seats against just 2 of the Congress, which indicates the scope the grand old party has in the state, said party insiders.
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