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Eye on UP polls, Priyanka Gandhi to launch ‘padayatra’ in Lucknow today
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for assembly polls early next year.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will on Thursday take out a ‘padyatra’ (foot march) across various parts of Lucknow as part of the grand old party's ‘Pragati Yatra’ launched last month in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. The foot march today is scheduled to begin at the Badi Kaliji temple in the Chowk area and end at the Dargah Hazrat Abbas after cutting through the Old City.
According to a letter that the local Congress committee in Lucknow issued for the people of the city, the padyatra aims to raise awareness regarding the party's electoral promises, especially in the interest of women and public welfare.
The route chosen for Priyanka Gandhi's foot march is seen as politically significant; according to Congress, it is intended to play on the "secular" chord of a Lucknow long past to propagate the party's idea of a nation. As per a report citing Ajay Kumar Lallu, the UP Congress chief, the padyatra on Thursday is aimed at reminding people that the thread which binds India is a shared legacy “above the realms of caste and religion”.
Priyanka Gandhi has been active in campaigning for the party in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the state assembly polls next year. She has taken the lead during Congress protests over a host of issues in the recent months, including the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, and issues of farmers, labourers and traders. On Wednesday, she also slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for allegedly attacking Accredited Social Health Activists (Asha) workers in Shahjahanpur.
Uttar Pradesh is scheduled to go for assembly polls early next year.
In the 2017 UP Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had secured 312 seats in the elections for the 403-member House. Samajwadi Party (SP) had bagged 47 seats, BSP had won 19 while Congress had bagged seven seats in the last Assembly polls in the state.
