New Delhi: Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and senior party leader Priyanka Gandhi hit the ground in Haryana to clinch a tightly-contested assembly polls, display unity among state leaders and project the elections as a Congress vs BJP fight.
Polling for all the 90 assembly seats in Haryana will take place on Oct 5. Results will be out on Oct 8.
According to party insiders, Rahul Gandhi, who had earlier travelled across the country, agreed to do a foot march in Haryana from Sep 30 to Oct 3, the last day of campaigning, to ensure the Congress not only returned to power after 10 years but got a two thirds majority in the Assembly.
Normally, it is a bit unusual for a national leader to launch a padyatra close to the polling. But Rahul agreed for the final push as several internal surveys indicated a groundswell of support for the Congress.
“The Bharat Jodo Yatra had earlier propelled the party nationally. The Haryana pad yatra will result in a tsunami. The Congress will win over 70 seats,” AICC secretary in charge of Haryana Manoj Chauhan told ETV Bharat.
Rahul, who will cover five or six constituencies per day, started his foot march from Naraingarh in Karnal after addressing a rally there and covered Yamunanagar, Ambala, Shahabad and Kurukshetra on Monday.
On Oct 1, Rahul will resume his foot march from Pakora Chowk, Bahadurgarh City and will cover Ladrawan, Kundal, Saidpur Chowk, Kharkhoda, Sonipat, Ganaur and Gohana as per available schedule.
Priyanka also addressed the Naraingarh rally where state rivals former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Lok Sabha MP Kumari Selja were seen together holding hands in a victory formation on the dais. Later the state leaders walked beside Rahul and Priyanka who slammed the bjp saying the Congress will restore development in the state.
According to party insiders, another aim of Rahul’s foot march was to project the Oct 5 elections as a mainly Congress vs BJP fight and marginalize the smaller parties like the INLD, JJP, BSP, BSP and AAP in the process.
JJP which was an ally of BJP since 2019, is now pursuing a separate course and is working closely with Bahujan Samaj party, Azad Samaj party and INLD to project a third front. Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is contesting on all seats and has been claiming that no government can be formed without it.
“They are all in the contest at the behest of the BJP and aim to divide the anti-BJP votes in the state as the voters are angry with the saffron party. The JJP enjoyed power for five years with BJP but are now trying their luck separately. The BSP and asp are together to win over Dalit votes. The AAP has little presence across the state but is fighting on all the seats. In a way they are all playing the BJP’s game and aim to dent opposition votes. But the people are with the Congress this time,” said Chauhan.
The Congress is mainly playing up the issues of unemployment impacting the youth and the plight of farmers to woo the voters in Haryana.
