Majority of UP Congress veterans who came on a platform in Gomti Nagar recently to show their strength and a big section of party leaders who contested assembly or parliamentary elections stayed away from a meeting called by UPCC chief Ajay Kumar ‘Lallu’ here on Wednesday to garner maximum support for the proposed ‘Bharat Bachao rally’ in New Delhi on December 14.
Sources said the meeting was earlier cancelled by Lallu as he knew that majority of former MLAs and MPs would not attend the meetings chaired by him hence he also included the names of all leaders who contested assembly or parliamentary elections and called about 300 leaders to join the discussions for making the Delhi rally a big success.
Lallu also invited veteran Congress leader Pramod Tewari hoping that his name would force other leaders to attend the meeting. However, the meeting was attended by just 60-70 leaders, maximum of them being those who unsuccessfully contested the last elections.
Chairing the meeting, Lallu asked party leaders to hold meetings with district/city presidents of their respective areas and also hold discussions up to block/ward level to ensure maximum participation of people from UP in the ‘Bharat Bachao rally’.
The rally will be led by party president Sonia Gandhi and other leaders and target the Central government for its failure on economic and other fronts, closure of big business establishments, unemployment, rising inflation.
In the meeting on Wednesday, besides Lallu and Pramod Tewari, the other prominent leaders who were present included Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra ‘Mona’, former minister Pradeep Jain Aditya, former MP Zafar Ali Naqvi, Rajarampal, RK Chowdhary and Mohammed Mukim.