Congress bus leaves for UP; poll campaign kicks off

Seeking to end the party’s nearly three-decade exile from power in Uttar Pradesh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday flagged off a three-day bus yatra.

With this, the grand old party also kicked off its election campaign in the state.

The luxury bus, painted a bright yellow, has onboard senior leaders like state chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sanjay Sinh and state party chief Raj Babbar. 

On the first day, the yatra traversed 173 km to reach Moradabad, with stops at Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gajraula and Amroha, where the leaders addressed public meetings coordinated by poll strategist Prashant Kishor.

The theme of the yatra is ‘27 Saal, UP Behaal’ to highlight the 27 years of “misrule” in the state since the Congress was voted out in 1989.

Over the next two days, the bus will travel through Rampur, Bareilly, Hardoi, Kannauj and end at Kanpur on Monday with a road show.

With many more bus yatras in the pipeline, the Congress aims at getting a head start in campaigning for the 2017 Assembly elections.

It plans to put in place a team of leaders to steer the party through the treacherous political terrain of Uttar Pradesh.

“We have no agenda to pander to a particular caste or religion. We want to take everybody along,” Azad, AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, said.

Throat infection forces Sheila to return
Sheila Dikshit, Congress’ chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh, had to take a “break” from the three-day bus campaign soon after its launch on Saturday due to throat infection, reports DHNS. Dikshit, 78, returned to her Delhi home by Saturday evening after having travelled a little beyond Hapur, about 60 km from the national capital.
The former Delhi chief minister is expected to hit the campaign trail on Sunday when the bus yatra sets off from Moradabad to Rampur.