Priyanka holds road show in Saharanpur, Bijnor

With just two days to go for the first phase of polling, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday held a road show in Saharanpur and Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh to seek votes for her party's candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

After doing a road show in Bijnor, she arrived in Saharanpur at around 2.30 p.m. and received a rousing welcome from party workers.

During her four km-long road show which lasted for over an hour in Saharanpur, the traffic came to a standstill as all the major traffic points were filled with party supporters.

Priyanka Gandhi, who was clad in a red sari, broke her security protocol when she stepped out from her SUV to walk among the crowd.

Many people climbed on to rooftops to get a glimpse of the Congress leader.

The Congress has fielded Imran Masood from Saharanpur and Naseemuddin Siddiqui from Bijnor. Both these constituencies will go to the polls on April 11.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of Congress workers and supporters came out braving the heat to participate in Priyanka's road show in Bijnor.

The Congress workers raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre and in the state.

On Monday, Priyanka Gandhi's joint rally, with her brother and Congress President Rahul Gandhi and the party's western Uttar Pradesh in-charge Jyotiraditya Scindia, was cancelled due to bad weather.

Earlier, she held similar road shows in Ayodhya and Ghaziabad.

After being appointed the party in-charge of east Uttar Pradesh in January, she has tried to infuse new life into the party.

The Congress is contesting 73 seats, as it has left seven seats for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the state.

The constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh going to the polls in the first phase are Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar.

The Congress, which could win only two seats - Rae Bareli and Amethi - in Uttar Pradesh, out of 80 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, is seeking a revival of its fortunes in the state.

--IANS

aks/mag/bg