Thursday will be a tough day for the people commuting on luck now-Kanpur road and the passengers landing at the Amausi airport. Over 20,000 vehicles mostly SUVs are expected to join the rath yatra of the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav from lucknow to Shuklaganj town of Unnao district. The number of vehicles could swell further.
To mark the launch of the rath yatra by the chief minister, the team Akhilesh operating as parallel organisation to state unit of the party has decked the state capital lucknow, in red and green — the official colours of ruling Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh Yadav will kick off the first phase of his poll campaign with the launch of the day long rath yatra from la Martinière grounds on Thursday. The day long yatra will conclude at Shuklaganj town in Unnao district same day. Entire city particularly the lohia path in Gomti nagar and all along the lucknow Kanpur road till Unnao thousands of hoardings and banners have been put up by the supporters of the Akhilesh Yadav. The hoardings carry the photo of akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav MP and Mulayam Singh Yadav and other youth leaders. The photos of state SP president Shivpal Yadav are conspicuous by their absence.
The second phase of the yatra is likely to commence after the silver jubilee foundation day function on November 5. The second phase would cover the Bundelkhand region and cover Hamirpur, Jhansi and Mahoba districts. The SP is celebrating its silver jubilee on November 5. A grand function is being organised at Janeshwar Mishra Park here to mark the occasion. Akhilesh Yadav during a programme here on October 28 had announced that November 3 and 5 would be an extended Diwali festival for the party workers and supporters and termed it an ‘agni pariksha’ (acid test) for him and the party.
Chief Minister’s camp has left no stone unturned to make the Rath yatra an ‘historic’ event. It will be the first occasion for Akhilesh Yadav to demonstrate his strength and the following among the people after the unfinished 50-day-long power struggle within the party where several of his supporters were expelled from the party. large number of his supporters from the native place of Etawah are also expected to join the show in lucknow. Abhishek Yadav, cousin of the Chief Minister and chairman of the Etawah district panchyat is looking after the mobilisation of the people from the district to lucknow.
Akhilesh Yadav will travel by an Rs 5 crore-Mercedes Benz, remodelled as the ‘rath’. The yatra was originally scheduled to be flagged off from the party state office on October 3, but had to be postponed due to escalation in tension within the first family of the party which later led to the dismissal of Shivpal Yadav from the cabinet and expulsion of Ram Gopal Yadav, the Rajya Sabha MP and uncle of chief minister, from the party. Meanwhile Minister Rajendra Chowdhary and vice chairman of the Janeshwar Mishra trust said here that several lakh supporters of the chief minister are expected to participate in the rath yatra. He said thousands of the supporters have already arrived in lucknow. He said during the rath yatra chief minister would address over a dozen whistle stop meeting from lucknow to shuklaganj in Unnao district and along the route of yatra several dozen welcome gates have been put up where the common people will welcome and garland the chief minister.