A month after formulating plans with UP Congress office-bearers and district/city chiefs, party general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is set to kick off her first major campaign across the state to highlight problems of farmers.
Priyanka was scheduled to launch a ‘Kisan Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ under ‘Kisan Bachao’ programme and address her first rally in Basti on February 23. “Aiming to revive the Congress in the state, the party will launch a huge campaign pertaining to farmers’ issues and plan to contact 1.5 crore farmers and later raise these issues before competent authority to get them resolved,” UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said.
“The Congress will ask the government to provide adequate minimum support price to farmers and facilitate benefit under crop insurance policy to those who faced huge losses due to natural calamities,” Lallu added.
The Congress leader claimed that India is a country-based on agriculture but since the BJP came to power in Delhi in 2014, the contribution of agriculture to national income has witnessed a dip from 4.7 per cent to 1.6 per cent. Lallu said that his party would take on the Yogi government on issues like stray cattle, payment of dues to cane farmers, non-availability of fertilisers, irregularities in procurement of paddy, no increase in minimum support price of foodgrains and rising cases of suicides by farmers in UP, especially in the Bundelkhand region.
“Party workers will reach out to the farmers to fill a form in which they can write about their problems. The forms collected from the farmers will be handed over to the tehsildars/DMs and will be sent to the state government,” he said.
Congress workers will also distribute pamphlets in which the situation of farmers will be compared during the UPA and NDA regimes. The party will also seek loan waiver for farmers, waiver of half their power bills, cowshed and watchdog allowance in every village.
Sources said that the Congress would hold programmes at village level every month highlighting farmers’ problems across the state. In the second phase, ‘nukkad sabhas’ will be held at block level and later, ‘padyatras’ will be organised at tehsil and district headquarters.
After kicking off the campaign from Basti on February 23, Priyanka will address four more rallies to raise farmers’ issues and she is expected to be accompanied by senior Congress leaders at the programmes.