Azad flags off Congress' '27 Saal, UP Behal' yatra

Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, in charge of the party's affairs in Uttar Pradesh, on Sunday flagged off the second phase of campaigning - 27 Saal, UP Behal yatra - ahead of assembly elections early next year.

The two convoys of party activists and leaders will conduct the campaign till October 9, and cover 65 districts.

Besides Azad and Congress' chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh Sheila Dikshit, the others participating in the yatras include state party chief Raj Babbar, Congress leaders Salman Khurshid, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Pramod Tiwari, Sanjay Singh, P.L. Punia and others.

Campaign convoy No. 1 will cover the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Bahraich, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar (Padrauna), Maharajganj, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar (Akbarpur), Jaunpur, Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadoi), Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Kasganj, Sambhal, Badaun, Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Auraiya, Etawah and Pilibhit.

Campaign convoy No. 2 will cover Lucknow, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Amethi, Sant Kabir Nagar (Khalilabad), Basti, Siddharth Nagar (Domariyaganj), Deoria, Ballia, Mau, Gazipur, Chandauli, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Fatehpur, Banda, Unnao, Kanpur Dehat (Akbarpur), GB Nagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Bijnor, Mathura, Hathras, Etah, Farrukhabad, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun (Orai), Hamirpur, Mahoba and Chitrakoot.

--IANS

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