Lucknow: Congress Chief Ministerial candidate for UP, Sheila Dikshit, on Saturday boarded a bus for a 600-kilometre ride to Kanpur from Delhi. She will stop en route along with party workers to interact with the public.
According to an NDTV report, the Congress launched its Uttar Pradesh campaign on Saturday with a three-day bus yatra "27 saal UP behaal", flagged off by party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Read: Sheila Dikshit named as Congress' Chief Ministerial candidate for UP
Sheila Dikshit was accompanied by actor-turned politician Raj Babbar, who is the Congress head in Uttar Pradesh.
Rahul Gandhi tweeted soon after the yatra had begun.
Join team Congress as we kick off a 3day bus yatra to highlight failures of successive Govts in UP. #27SaalUPBehal pic.twitter.com/WFOLBYp4yr
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) July 23, 2016
The NDTV report says that Congress will target not just the Samajwadi Party government but several past governments in the state, where it has been out of power for 27 years.
The yatra will cover four districts each day and will halt at Moradabad on the
first day, covering important districts in western Uttar Pradesh.
It will then travel to Shahjahanpur, covering Rampur and Bareilly and on the third day it will cover Hardoi, Kannauj and then end at Kanpur.
Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party will aim to form a government in Uttar Pradesh. The party does not believe in dividing people on religious and caste lines and seek to unite them instead, he said.
"Through this yatra we will take to the people, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi's message of unity. Unlike other parties we do not want to divide the voters in the name of religion and community
"It has been 27 years since Congress has been out of power and during this period, BJP, BSP and SP ruled the state and divided the people in the name of community and religion. But we will try to unite everybody and form a government which will not give preference to any particular community," said Azad.
Next week, Rahul Gandhi will meet with 50,000 party workers in
On August 2, Sonia Gandhi is likely to hold a roadshow in
Read: Cong CM face Sheila escapes with minor injuries in UP roadshow
Sheila Dikshit had been appointed the CM candidate of the Congress for UP, after much wrangling, reportedly on recommendation by strategist Prashant Kishor. She had been the Delhi CM for 3 terms before being defeated by Arvind Kejriwal in 2013.
Elections in UP are scheduled for 2017.
