Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will be visisting the state capital to attend a Dalit Conclave on Thursday, before heading to his Parliamentary constituency Amethi for a tw-day visit starting Friday.
Thursday’s conclave in lucknow is aimed at targeting the party’s age-old Dalit vote bank and woo them back to the fold and bolster its chances in teh next Assembly polls. The Dlits, in general, have somewhat defected to the BSP in the last two decades.
UPCC chief Nirmal Khatri, who earlier organised `Bheem Jyoti Yatra’ to woo Dalits, is now busy preparing for the Dalit conclave with his team. The state unit is ecnouraged with Gandhi’s confirmation on attending the function.
Vice-chairman of Media Cell (UPCC) Maroof Khan said that Gandhi will be attending the concluding session of the conclave which will deliberate on a number of issues including a strategy to bring back the community vack to the partyfold. “The conclave will also discuss ‘Ambedkar’s mission and Congress’ vision for socio-economic empowerment of Dalits’,” he said.
“The event will also to be attended by leaders like Mukul Wasnik and Madhusudan Mistry and “anti-dalit approach of SP, BSP, BJP and RSS,” Khan added. After attending the conclave, Gandhi will head for Amethi and will interact with people of Salon assembly segment on Friday. He would attend a meeting of office bearers and activists at the guest house of Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital at Munshiganj in the evening.
On the second day of his tour, Gandhi is scheduled to meet people from different walks of life. Amethi constituency comprises five Assembly segments - four in Amethi (Tiloi, Jagdishpur, Gauriganj and Amethi) and one in Rae Bareli (Salon).