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As Covid cases rise, Congress halts big rallies in poll-bound UP
The Congress on Wednesday suspended its big political rallies in poll-bound UP amid rising Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant.
The Congress on Wednesday suspended its big political rallies in Uttar Pradesh and asked district units to assess the situation locally before holding any poll-related programmes amid rising Covid-19 cases fuelled by the Omicron variant.
The decision, the first for a major political party, comes after the party’s chief campaigner, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, isolated herself on Tuesday after a family member as well as a staff member tested positive.
Congress secretary Pranav Jha said, “In the wake of the Covid situation, general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal had asked all state units to assess the ground situation and take appropriate steps. Our Uttar Pradesh unit informed that they would withhold big rallies for 15 days.”
Assembly elections are due in UP, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur this year. Most parties have started full fledged campaigns in these states.
In UP, the Congress had planned a major rally in Azamgarh on Wednesday and Varanasi on January 9.
Jha added that it is entirely up to the state units to decide how they want to run their campaign keeping in mind the public health situation.
This is the second time the principal Opposition party called off big rallies in the wake of the Covid situation. In April last year, the Congress leaders stopped campaigning midway into the run up to the West Bengal elections last year. Subsequently, all major parties including the BJP and the Trinamool Congress shunned big rallies.
But the party will pursue more door-to-door campaigns and social media outreach to compensate for the loss of mega rallies. “In our calculation, absence of big rallies won’t hurt our prospects. We have already announced the slew of sops for women including 40% reservation in party tickets. Many of our leaders have already advocated smaller, roadside meetings and door to door campaigns as they are more effective weapons to reach out to the people. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, our campaign focused more on smaller meetings than mega rallies,” said a Congress leader familiar with developments.
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