New Delhi: The Congress is planning to counter the BJP’s Ayodhya temple narrative in Uttar Pradesh through a dual strategy.
While former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s proposed Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, that will spend the longest leg of 11 days in Uttar Pradesh, will play up the party’s social welfare and justice agenda, AICC in charge of UP Avinash Pande and state unit chief Ajay Rai will visit Ayodhya on January 15 before the Ram temple consecration to convey a positive message.
A lot of party leaders may accompany the Congress leader who are likely to take a dip in river Saryu. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has said he would soon decide on the invite for the January 22 event. “Yes, we will be visiting Ayodhya on January 15. Lord Ram belongs to everyone and visiting Ayodhya is a matter of faith for anyone,” Pande told ETV Bharat.
“Rahul Gandhi has been talking about delivering justice to the people and is keen that the national focus should be on issues related to people like jobs, unemployment, price rise, economy, social harmony. He will highlight these issues during the entire yatra. Obviously, he will flag the issues in Uttar Pradesh as well. The yatra has excited our workers and will help revive the party in the state,” AICC spokesperson and senior state leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh told ETV Bharat.
Rahul’s yatra will start from Imphal in Manipur on January 14 and will pass through 15 states to culminate in Mumbai on March 20. UP, which sends the largest number of 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and is the home state of the Nehru-Gandhi family, has therefore been given due importance in the east-to west nationwide yatra, which will launch the Congress campaign for the parliamentary elections due in April-May. The yatra will spend the longest leg of 11 days in UP and will pass through around 20 parliamentary seats where the party thinks it has a chance of winning.
These seats are Chandauli, Varanasi, Bhadohi, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Barabanki, Lucknow, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjahanpur, Bareilly, Rampur, Moradabad, Sambhal, Aligarh, Kasganj, Hathras and Agra among others. Amethi and Rae Bareli are traditional Nehru-Gandhi family bastions. Rahul represented Amethi in Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2019 when he lost the seat. His mother and former party chief Sonia Gandhi represents the neighbouring Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency.
Akhilesh Pratap Singh denied that the yatra was planned as per the parliamentary seats but said that people in the two VIP constituencies were excited over the yatra. “The people of Amethi and RaeBareli are excited over the yatra passing through those areas but the parliamentary constituencies have been lined up as per the available route,” said Singh.
“There was a general discussion that we not only have to have a very strong campaign, we have to launch a communication campaign which will highlight the failures of the Modi government of the last 10 years and also unveil what our agenda is for the future, which is what the whole purpose of the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’. So, during the yatra the elements of our positive narrative will come out,” said a CWC member.
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