Congress in a quandary over joint rallies with Samajwadis

Lucknow: The Congress in Uttar Pradesh is in a quandary over the joint rallies that are to be addressed by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav.

The Congress wants that the talking points of the two leaders in the rallies should be discussed and shortlisted before the rallies begin so that there is no difference of opinion later.

The state leaders have now asked the party high command to work out modalities in order to avoid bad blood later. The party high command has also been asked not to embark on joint rallies without resolving some key issue.

The state unit of the Congress feel that Mr Rahul Gandhi should end up being projected as a “junior partner” during the joint rallies.

“If the rallies are to be held, there should be a harmony of views expressed by leaders of both parties. Any message that highlights a contradiction of views will defeat the purpose of the alliance,” said a senior Congress leader.

The main worry of the Congress strategy makers is that while Mr Gandhi has been mounting a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent months, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has been rather mild in his attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, restricting it to barbs on “achche din”.

Another issue that is making the Congress apprehensive is that the chief minister, in his speeches, focuses completely on his government’s achievements. Members of Team Akhilesh, however, are unwilling to water down this issue.

“Our tag line for these elections is ‘Kaam Bolta Hai’ and the chief minister will definitely speak about his achievements on the development front. If the Congress wants, it can also speak about its contribution to development but we are certainly not going to change the focus of speeches by the chief minister,” said a member of the Team Akhilesh.

He added that the Congress would not be allowed to dictate terms for joint rallies since the Samajwadi Party’s presence and clout in state politics was “much bigger” than that of the Congress.

The Congress campaign would also like to focus on the plight of Muslims but the Samajwadi Party, for obvious reasons, has been skirting the issue because it does not want to “bring back the demons of Muzaffarnagar riots, Dadri lynching and Kairana issue”.

“The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance has been forged to mop up minority votes and if we do not talk about these issues, how can we expect the community to vote for us,” said a member of the campaign committee.