Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will launch three pratigya yatras in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, party leaders said.
The Congress general secretary is also expected to make some more announcements after promising 40% reservation for women in the allocation of the party tickets for the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, besides smartphones to class 12 pass girls and electric scooties for graduating women students.
In all, the Congress proposes to make seven “pratigyas” (promises) to the people of the state in addition to the party’s election manifesto to be released in the coming weeks.
Senior party leaders have been deployed to lead the yatras to take these promises to the people.
“Yes, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will flag off three yatras in Barabanki on Saturday. She will make the announcement about the remaining pratigyas (promises) while flagging off the yatras scheduled to end on November 1,” said Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra ‘Mona’ who, along with senior party leaders PL Punia, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Rajesh Mishra, shared with the media the details of the yatras that would cover major cities, towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Punia said the first yatra to be led by Pramod Tiwari, Rajesh Mishra and Nadeem Javed would begin in Varanasi and pass through Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh and Amethi districts to end in Rae Bareli. He said another yatra would begin in Barabanki and end in Jhansi via Lucknow, Unnao, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur and Jalaun. Punia would lead this second yatra with Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’ and Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Former Union minister Salman Khurshid, along with senior party leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam, would lead the third yatra that would begin in Saharanpur.
{{/usCountry}}Punia said the first yatra to be led by Pramod Tiwari, Rajesh Mishra and Nadeem Javed would begin in Varanasi and pass through Chandauli, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Prayagraj, Pratapgarh and Amethi districts to end in Rae Bareli. He said another yatra would begin in Barabanki and end in Jhansi via Lucknow, Unnao, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur and Jalaun. Punia would lead this second yatra with Pradeep Jain ‘Aditya’ and Naseemuddin Siddiqui. Former Union minister Salman Khurshid, along with senior party leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam, would lead the third yatra that would begin in Saharanpur.
{{/usCountry}}Asked whether the party has cancelled the fourth yatra proposed earlier, Mishra said, “We have a public meeting in Gorakhpur on October 31 and the yatra was also to be in the district at the same time. This would have upset the programme. So, a decision about the fourth yatra will be taken after Diwali.”
Indeed, the months preceding the 2022 assembly polls appear to be replete with yatras —the Congress’s Pratigya Yatras, the BJP’s Jan Ashirvad Yatras, the Samajwadi Party’s Vijay Yatras and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party’s Samajik Parivartan Yatra.