Kicking off their election campaign in right earnest, the major political parties are all set to roll out their modern 'raths' – in fact modified buses – across Uttar Pradesh to woo voters to vote for them in the Assembly elections slated for early next year.
The Congress, which is trying hard to regain its lost glory after 27 years in exile in UP, will be the first to launch two yatras from Sunday next. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Samajwadi Party are also slated to embark on yatras next month.
Although the Bahujan Samaj Party has no plans to take out yatra, party chief Mayawati is slated to address a public rally at Agra on August 21. This public meeting will be followed by one at Azamgarh, the parliamentary constituency of SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav, on August 28. Both Agra and Azamgarh have a sizeable number of Dalit and Muslim population and the BSP is targeting them for the coming election.
The Samajwadi Party will launch its 'Mulayam Sandesh Yatra' from September 10. It will be led by party vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Kironmay Nanda.
A former minister of West Bengal, Nanda will be accompanied by Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha president Vikas Yadav in the yatra. The 'mantra' of this yatra is 'Akhilesh ka youth Jeetega har booth'.
Nanda said here that in the first phase, the yatra would cover all the districts between lucknow and Jalaun in the Bundelkhand region.
"Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is slated to flag off the yatra," he said.
Akhilesh Yadav is also planning a 'Samajwadi Vikas Rath Yatra' to showcase the achievements of his government, sometime next month.
The BJP will roll out its 'Parivartan Yatras' from the four corners of the state sometime in September. These yatras will culminate in lucknow in the first week of December after covering all the districts within hundred days.
"Each 'Parivartan Yatra' will pass through at least 100 Assembly constituencies, cumulatively covering all the 403 Assembly seats in the state," said BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak.
"One yatra will concentrate on one Assembly constituency every day so that in 100 days as many number of constituencies are covered," Pathak said.
"Several senior leaders will join the yatra. There will be regular roadside meetings which will be addressed by these leaders," he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress will flag off two yatras from lucknow on Sunday. AICC general secretary and UP in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad will flag off these yatras. One group will be led by party's chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and campaign committee in-charge Sanjay Singh while the other group will be led by UPCC president Raj Babbar and coordination committee head Pramod Tewari.