To highlight the problems of Anganbari, madarsa and other workers along with cane arrears of farmers and MNREGA, an elaborate campaign strategy has been thrashed out by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary incharge of UP East, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in Uttar Pradesh for the next 45 days.
The party will be holding around 18 major rallies in the state that would be jointly addressed by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also likely to address a couple of poll rallies in Pilibhit and Kanpur that have sizeable Sikh voters.
A senior Congress leader said in Lucknow on Thursday that by Friday, the venues of the rallies would be finalised, but importance would be attached to constituencies where Congress candidates have higher probability of winning the polls.
The rallies are likely to be held at Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bareilly, Fatehpur Sikri, Aligarh, Lucknow, Faizabad, Barabanki, Kushinagar, Pratapgarh, Lakhimpur Kheri, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Varanasi, Jhansi and Faizabad.
However, the Congress rallies in Varanasi and Lucknow, the constituencies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, respectively, will be important for the party.
At these rallies, Congress leaders will raise the issue of minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor and also issues relating to the Uttar Pradesh. The focus of rallies in western UP will be on sugarcane arrears of farmers and closure of several sugar mills.