Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati hit the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll trail on Wednesday, a week ahead of the first phase of elections spanning seven phases and ending on March 3.
The campaign has sparked interest among the voters and analysts alike, as Gandhi, who is also chairperson of the UPA at the Centre, and Mayawati, who is UP chief minister, have a certain charisma and verbal firepower which their respective parties believe would boost their electoral prospect in the state.
While, Gandhi, 65, knows that an inspiring performance by her party at the elections would make gains for the ruling coalition in Delhi, Mayawati, nine years younger to the Congress president, is seeking to retain her crown as the CM after notching up a majority in the 2007 assembly poll — a feat that surprised not only her political detractors and rivals, but the BSP itself. Today, Gandhi, who is the Rae Bareli MP, addressed two public meetings — in Gonda and Deoria districts, while Mayawati spoke at rallies in Sitapur and Barabanki districts, attacking the opposition parties. Gonda and Barabanki are adjoining districts in central UP, where both women politicians are leaving no stones unturned to ensure the victory of their parties. In her speech, Mayawati reminded the electorate that the BSP had this time taken care to field candidates with clean image — unlike last assembly poll, when defectors of other parties had tricked party leadership and secured tickets. “Several of these defectors got elected, and worked for their personal gains. They brought infamy to the state government and our party,” she said.
Mayawati’s first leg of tour would stretch till February 5, covering Ambedkar Nagar, Faizabad, Bahraich, Gonda, Basti and Maharajganj districts in eastern UP. Gandhi’s daughter, Priyanka Vadra, is slated to tour their Congress’s pocket borough of Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies this month to canvass for the party’s candidates.
Over the past several weeks, Priyanka’s brother, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, had undertaken hectic tours of several constituencies in the state spanning eastern UP and Bundelkhand districts in the west. Tomorrow, he will address a joint public meeting in Meerut with Union minister Ajit Singh, who is president of Rashtriya Lok Dal — a Congress ally at the Centre. This assembly poll is the mettle test for Amethi MP Rahul, who his party’s leaders are projecting as the country’s future prime minister. The Congress’s success — or at least improved performance — in the upcoming state poll would strengthen his stature and vindicate the ‘youth icon’ as a deserving heir of the Nehru-Gandhi political legacy.
Other parties’s top leaders who addressed public meetings in the state on Wednesday included Akhilesh Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and Rajnath Singh of BJP.
