To give a thrust to the Congress campaign in the run up to the Assembly polls, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi has planned two massive `anti -demonetisation public meetings’ in Uttar Pradesh during the next week.
The move is setto boost party workers who failed to retain the momentum after Rahul’s `Deoria Se Dilli Kisan Yatra’ or the `27 Saal, UP Behal Yatras’ led by Congress CM candidate Sheila Dikshit and UPCC chief Raj Babbar.
Rahul Gandhi’s rally is also seen as a counter to PM Narendra Modi’s ongoing series of meetings in the state to seek public support on demonetisation.
Interestingly the first rally of Rahul in Jaunpur on December 19 would clash with Modi’s rally in Kanpur and hence leaders of both parties are pressing their entire resources to score over the other.
“Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address a huge gathering in Jaunpur on coming Monday while a similar rally will be addressed by the Nehru-Gandhi scion in Bahraich on December 22,” infomed UP Congress vice-president and media in-charge Satyadev Tripathi on Wednesday.
Earlier on Sunday, PM Modi had addressed a rally in Bahraich over mobile phone as he failed to reach the venue by helicopter due to inclement weather and poo visibility.
Congress leaders are upbeat after the announcement especially as the Congress leader charged Modi of being ‘involved in a scam through the demonetisation move’.
A vocal critic of the Centre’s ‘unplanned, ill-implemented’ demonetisation move, Rahul will also address anti-demonetisation rallies in poll-bound Goa, UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Karnataka, to cash in on the growing discontent among the masses.
Rahul’s rallies will start from Goa on December 15 and in UP, they will be held later next week. Congress sources said that the party will go to the people and rake up the Centre’s failure to esnure smooth flow of currency notes even after 36 days after the demonetisation decision.