Congress will continue to toe the soft Hindutva agenda with star campaigner and AICC general secretary and UP east in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra planning to hit the campaign trail by taking the Ganga river route from Allahabad to Varanasi.
Priyanka also has plans to halt at Mirzapur for a ‘darshan’ of the famous Maa Vindhyavasini temple. In Varanasi also, the Congress pin-up leader will pay obeisance to the deity at Kashi Vishwanath temple.
During her programme, Priyanka will interact with the downtrodden sections of society residing on the banks of the Ganga river.
Earlier, in the run-up to the Assembly elections in five states, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had toed the soft Hindutva agenda and it bore fruitful results with victories in three central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
“Priyanka will reach the state capital on Friday to discuss the campaign trail and other strategies with senior Congress leaders. The course of her campaign will depend on the decision taken by local administration,” said Congress state president Raj Babbar in Lucknow on Thursday.
Earlier, Priyanka was slated to visit Lucknow for three days last week but she cancelled her programme at the last moment.
At the Congress headquarters in Lucknow on Thursday, Raj Babbar claimed that office-bearers of the state unit would discuss the details of her programme on Friday and thereafter it would be shared with media persons.
“She may take the river route to reach out to the poor people, especially those residing on river banks, and who have been continuously facing hardships for the past 30 years,” Babbar said without disclosing details.
However, a senior Congress leader said that Priyanka would begin her campaign from Allahabad, the birthplace of her great grandfather and India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and then she may take the river route to Varanasi.
In Allahabad, Priyanka is likely to visit the historic Anand Bhawan, the ancestral home of the Nehrus, now dedicated as a museum housing personal belongings of Jawaharlal Nehru and his father Motilal Nehru.
On Priyanka visiting Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad at a Meerut hospital on Wednesday, Babbar said that there was nothing political in it and it was just to express solidarity with a youth who was arrested for raising concerns of members of his community.
Babbar alleged that it was shameful that the state as well as Central governments were crushing the voice of anyone who dared to oppose their policies or highlighted social welfare issues.
