Ghulam Nabi Azad: Congress seeks to unite, not divide

Sheila Dikshit and Ghulam Nabi Azad begin a three-day bus yatra — “27 saal, UP behaal” — from the Congress headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday as party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi see them off. (Photo: PTI)

The yatra is aimed at reaching out to the public and highlighting the failure of successive governments in Uttar Pradesh in the past 27 years, ever since the Congress was voted out of power in the state.

Castes and communal polarisation continues to play a decisive role in the elections in Uttar Pradesh, which has given at least nine Prime Ministers to the country since Independence, including incumbent Narendra Modi, who represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha.

The last 27 years have seen the rule of the BJP, BSP and the Samajwadi Party but this has not changed the profile of the most populous state, which remains in the grip of caste and muscle power.

The Congress, which got only two Lok Sabha seats from the state, is hoping that anti-incumbency against the state government and the Centre will make it relevant again. It has hired poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who had worked for Mr Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, to revive the party in UP.

The yatra will cover Ghaziabad, Hapur, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Kannauj and Kanpur and the leaders will address three to four public meetings in the three days. It will halt at Moradabad on the first day (July 23), covering important places in western Uttar Pradesh, and proceed to Shahjahanpur, covering Rampur and Bareilly, and on the third day it will cover Hardoi, Kannauj and then end in Kanpur.

Mr Azad, the AICC general secretary in charge of UP, said the party will aim to form a government in UP. The party does not believe in dividing people on religious and caste lines and seeks to unite them instead, he said.

“Through this yatra, we will take to the people Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi’s message of unity,” Mr Azad said.

Unlike other parties, we do not want to divide the voters in the name of religion and community. It has been 27 years since the Congress has been out of power and during this period, the BJP, the BSP and the SP ruled the state and divided 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,” Mr Azad said.

The yatra will be followed by a meeting of the UP Congress in Lucknow on July 29 which will be attended by Mr Gandhi.