Heavy political agenda awaits the chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who is scheduled to return to lucknow from foreign tour on July 6. To keep pace with the hectic poll related activity by the BJP, the ruling Samajwadi party will launch full throttle poll campaign from September.
As per the decision of the central parliamentary board of the party, chief minister will formally kick off the party’s poll campaign by embarking on the state wide `Rath yatra’ from September 12. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav will be the star campaigner of the party for the 2017 state assembly elections. For showcasing the achievements and the development works done by the SP government the vehicle, which will be bullet proof has been named as `Vikas Rath’.
The SP has decided to galvanize the entire organisation set up for the next assembly elections. On July 9, Samajwadi party has called meeting of all the 64 MlCs of the party and 63 chairmen of the district panchyats. On July 14, Samajwadi party has called the meeting of the youth organisations of the party and chief minister who is also the state president of the party will preside over the meeting. In the same month, meeting of the district/city presidents and the state executive of the party will also be held. The dates are yet to be finalised.
SP has already announced tickets for the 153 assembly seats it had lost in 2012 assembly elections. SP leadership has also deployed its 36 MlCs, the members of the upper house of the UP legislature for conducting a survey of the electoral prospects of the party candidates in all the 403 assembly seats. The MlCs will interact with the local people and the grass root level party cadres to gauze the mood of the electorate and submit the report to the party president Mulayam Singh Yadav within this month.
Naved Siddiqui, chairman of the UP lalit Kala Academy and a member of the core team of the chief minister said `` details of the Rath Yatra are being worked out and it will be almost on the same pattern as was taken out in 2012 ahead of the 2012 state assembly elections’’. He said there is a proposal to get a new vehicle for the Rath Yatra, but the old vehicle used in 2011 is also in fine condition. He said final decision will be taken after the return of the chief minister from aboard.
"In 2011 , the Rath Yatra for firing the imagination of the people and creating the hope for a better future, this time we will go to the people armed with our performance record and the promises made in 2011-12 , fulfilled by the Samajwadi party government’’., said Naved Siddiqui.
He said the Vikas Rath will be equipped with state of the art technology and all modern facilities like internet and Wi Fi and blue tooth facility and a small office chamber for the chief minister. The Rath will also be equipped with lERD screen The Vikas Rath will be painted in red colour of the Samajwadi party. The SP leader said the Rath will be equipped with the Hydraulic lift and the chief minister will address 4 to 5 public meetings in a day.
A song written and composed by Naved Siddiqui, highlighting the achievements of the SP government will be played during the state wide tour of the Vikas Rath
A senior SP leader said `` beside countering the blitzkrieg by the BJP , the party will have to create and sell a new political narrative due to the damage caused to the party by the `aborted merger ‘ of Mukhtar Ansari’s Quami Ekta Dal’’.