New Delhi: The Congress is planning to hold joint rallies with the Samajwadi Party to counter the BJP-RLD combine in the western parts of Uttar Pradesh. The grand old party is understood to have been working with the SP to bring its supremo Akhilesh Yadav onboard to join the campaign along with other senior party leaders.
According to Congress insiders, the party is looking at organising rallies of senior leader and star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and ex-Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot in the Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar seats that will go to polls on April 19 along with Kairana, Bijnor, Moradabad, Nagina (SC), Rampur and Pilibhit.
The party has tasked Congress Legislative Party leader Aradhana Mishra to coordinate with the SP leaders for joint rallies in the two seats. Out of the eight seats in Phase 1, the Congress is only contesting Saharanpur, where it has fielded a strong candidate Imran Masood, while the SP is contesting the remaining seven seats.
“Joint rallies will help the alliance and add more weight to our campaign,” AICC secretary in charge of UP Pradeep Narwal told ETV Bharat. According to party insiders, the Congress is waiting for the auspicious period and will start the poll rallies after April 10. The joint rallies are part of the cooperation that the Congress and the SP are extending to each other to counter the BJP-RLD combine.
The RLD has a strong support base in the western parts of UP and had earlier joined hands with the SP, which had given it seven seats. But later RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary decided to work with the BJP in exchange for only two seats.
According to party insiders, the BJP is banking on RLD in western parts of UP to counter the unease among the Jat farmers who dominate the area. In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP had won three seats Kairana, Muzaffarnagar and Pilibhit while the SP-BSP alliance had won five. The SP had won Moradabad and Rampur while the BSP got Saharanpur, Bijnor and Nagina.
Saharanpur nominee Imran Masood joined the Congress last year after he was expelled from the BSP. In the 2014 national polls, the BJP had won seven of these eight seats and is putting all efforts into repeating the result in 2024 while the Congress-SP is determined to counter the saffron party.
“Our alliance is strong in the western areas and will do well. The voters are miffed with the BJP and the BSP has been weakened,” said Narwal. While the Congress is banking on the appeal of its senior leaders, veteran SP leader Azam Khan, who has considerable influence in the area, will not be able to campaign as he is serving a jail term.
Besides UP, the Congress managers are also looking at deploying the top three leaders in Maharashtra where the Congress-Shiv Sena UBT-NCP-SP plans to counter the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP coalition.
According to party insiders, Rahul Gandhi will campaign on April 13 in the Bhandara-Gondia seat, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in the Ramtek seat on April 14 and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Chandrapur, where the Congress has fielded old-timer Pratibha Dhanorkar, on April 15.
In Ramtek, the party has fielded Shyamrao Barve after his wife Rashmi Barve’s caste certificate got invalidated. In Bhandara Gondia the party has fielded Prashant Pandole as its candidate.
