Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi (SP)
New Delhi, Jul 11: The extent, to which Congress general secretary, Rahul Gandhi, has succeeded in cashing on the failures of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government and making inroads into the rural belt of the state, remains debatable. While his impromptu meetings and visits to villages by foot, culminating in Mahapanchayat of farmers in Aligarh on Saturday July 9 have been described as failures by his adversaries, his supporters vouch for his growing popularity and the deep imprint his visit has left behind, in the run up to the state assembly elections scheduled to be held during next year.
Mayawati, a seasoned politician, convened a meeting of the party coordinators on Sunday, the third within a week. The earlier meetings were held on July 7 and 8 at Lucknow and Aligarh respectively. The leaders of Bahujan Samajwadi Party have planned to erase the marks if any Rahul Gandhi has left behind on the affected farmers. As part of the exercise, a number of ministers will visit Greater Noida and Aligarh, to meet farmer leaders, mingle with farmers, and assuage their hurt feelings if any, during August this year.
Sources revealed that Mayawati, who had reasons to feel threatened by the visit of Rahul Gandhi because of the negative publicity her government has been getting of late, was relieved at the fact that the Mahapanchayat at Aligarh organized in Rahul’s presence, was attended by a relatively small crowd. Congress leaders, including state Congress chief, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, have charged the government officials of banning the entry of vehicles into Aligarh on July 8. She said Mayawati had asked the police and other officials to ensure that huge crowds do not attend the Mahapanchayat. She blamed the Chief Minister of seeking recourse to cheap gimmicks and insisted that over a lac of people had attended the Mahapanchayat. The government estimate of the crowd is around 20,000.
BSP state president, Swami Prasad Maurya, says that only 7,000 chairs had been put up at the venue of the Mahapanchayat, as against the Congress claims of placing 35,000 chairs. He said that the presence of farmers there was restricted to 20 percent, with the others comprising petty politicians who wanted Congress tickets. He accused Rahul of trying to gain popularity by making false allegations against the UP government. He said it was the central government which was acting against the interests of the farmers. He also blamed the UPA government of pruning down the state’s demands for funds under various schemes. It is surmised that the large number of Congress ticket seekers from the state has surprised the BSP leaders, who said the Congress had faced shortage of candidates during the previous assembly election.
It is learnt that the UP government officials have been assigned with the task of extracting details about the impact Rahul made on the villagers. Sources said that strong supporters of BSP in villages visited by Rahul, had been entrusted with the task of raising the topics of corruption and inflation in an effort to embarrass him. A leader said that unable to face a flurry of questions from the villagers, Rahul pruned down his Padayatra to three days.