Eight thousands “khats” (cots) will be laid out in Deoria district in eastern Uttar Pradesh on September 6 when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi begins his “Deoria to Delhi Kisan Yatra”, ahead of
Eight thousands “khats” (cots) will be laid out in Deoria district in eastern Uttar Pradesh on September 6 when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi begins his “Deoria to Delhi Kisan Yatra”, ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.
Mr Gandhi, who will also be seated on a “khat” will interact with farmers of the region.
The “khat”, or “charpoy”, is symbolic of community chatting in the rural interiors of the state where villagers usually get together in the evening and exchange notes, take decisions on important issues and share each other’s joys and sorrows.
“Mr Gandhi will not be giving speeches during this yatra that will cover 2,500 km, pass through 236 Vidhan Sabha constituencies and 55 districts. He will be exchanging dialogues and views with the local people, mainly farmers,” said senior Congress leader and former Union minister R.P.N. Singh here on Friday.
Mr Singh said that during this yatra, the Congress vice-president will also take part in the door-to-door campaign that the Congress is launching alongside in which the party will get farmers to fill up forms for “loan maaf, bijli half”. These forms will later be given to the Modi government to get the loans of farmers waived off and the power rates cut by half.
The Congress leader said that the other two yatras, led by UPCC president Raj Babbar and Congress chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit, will continue on different routes.
The idea behind these multiple yatras is to mobilise Congress workers.
Senior Congress leader Meem Afzal said that this was one of the longest yatras being undertaken by Mr Gandhi ahead of the UP polls.
Mr Singh, Meem Afzal and Rajiv Shukla have been assigned the task of the media department for the UP assembly polls.
