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| Rahul shifts focus to UP Jat belt | | Congress pins high hopes on its pre-poll alliance with new ally Rashtriya Lok Dal |
| Virendra Singh Rawat / New Delhi/ Lucknow Feb 23, 2012, 00:24 IST |
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Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has been holding back-to-back election meetings and rallies across Uttar Pradesh, has now shifted his party’s focus to the Jat belt in western UP. Rahul is scheduled to hold poll meetings in Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Aligarh, Mathura, Bulandshahr, Agra, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Bijnore to woo the Jat electorate. Jats form one-fifth of western UP’s total population.
The Congress is pinning high hopes on its pre-poll alliance with Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) for improving its tally in western UP. In the 2007 Assembly poll, both the parties had bagged about 15 seats. Their alliance is aimed at consolidating the Jat and Muslim votes in their favour to make the contest three-cornered among Congress-RLD, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
After the pact, RLD is fighting on a total of 48 seats in UP, including 45 in western UP, comprising about 140 Asse-mbly constituencies. So far, Rahul had also addressed joint rallies with RLD general secretary and Ajit Singh’s son Jayanat Chaudhary in certain pockets. Meanwhile, the first four phases of UP poll had covered 226 Assembly constituencies across 39 districts of the total 403 constituencies and 75 districts respectively. The voting percentage had ranged between 57-62 per cent.
The remaining three phases of UP poll are to be held in western UP and Bundelkhand comprising 177 Assembly constituencies across 36 districts.
UP is witnessing polling in 7 phases, February 8, 11, 15, 19, 23, 28 and March 3. The counting would take place on March 6 for all five poll-bound states of UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
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