New Delhi, June 5 (IANS): Even as the offer to provide 1,000 buses to Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh was rejected, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra anchored the arrangement for the return of over 44,000 migrant workers of the state to their homes, party sources said.

Stranded in several parts of the country, Gandhi managed to provide this multitude a hope to get seats in Shramik Special trains, seats in buses and other modes of transport and this process started much before her appeal to the Uttar Pradesh CM, they said.

A top Congress source, associated with Priyanka Gandhi, said, the party General Secretary, who is also the in-charge for eastern Uttar Pradesh, was helping the people even before the Shramik Special trains were introduced on May 1 and bus episode with the Uttar Pradesh government in mid May.

The source said after the lockdown was extended for the first time for 19 days, Priyanka Gandhi took up the work to help the stranded migrant workers as visuals of people travelling on foot with their children started surfacing on the news channels and social media.

"Due to her intervention, over 44,000 migrant workers were sent back by the buses or Shramik Special arranged by different state units to Uttar Pradesh," the source said. "And to ease the process of helping the stranded migrant workers she also launched UP Mitra helpline on May 5," the source said, adding that through the helpline over 5.5 lakh people registered for their travel while over five lakh requests were received from different district units of the state.

The list was then shared with different state units for their travel arrangements, the source said. When asked, if Priyanka Gandhi's team paid for the Shramik Special trains, the source clarified that the Congress leader did not book the trains, but she kept on forwarding the requests that her office received from the migrant workers to the state units.

The state units then coordinated with the migrant workers and arranged for their return either by buses or Shramik Special trains and the amount was paid by the Congress state units, the source said.

Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on May 4 while emphasising upon the plight of migrants and the money being charged from them for being ferried to their homes, had said that the party will bear the cost of their rail tickets. "And till date, the Congress state units roughly paid for the fares of over 22 Shramik Special trains to the Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab state governments, which were destined for Uttar Pradesh, as our workers were coordinating for the passengers lists," the source added.

"The office of Priyanka Gandhi used to share the request for the travel and ration arrangements of the migrant workers stranded in Mumbai with us," Suraj Singh Thakur, Vice President of Mumbai Youth Congress told IANS. Thakur, who was coordinating for the safe return of the migrant workers said, Priyanka Gandhi's office ensured that the list shared with the Maharashtra Congress team was properly followed up and all help was being provided. Thakur further said that with the intervention of Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress state unit was able to arrange for the travel of over 10,000-12,000 migrant workers from Maharashtra to Uttar Pradesh either by trains or through other mediums likes small vehicles or buses.

He said, through Shramik Special trains, the Congress state units arranged for the travel of over 15,000 people while some with medical emergencies or family emergencies were sent through small vehicles or buses. He also said that they provided them with water bottles and food for their journey.

Ashwini Kumar Sharma, Ludhiana Congress President said, "Kishori Lal Sharma from Priyanka Gandhi's office kept sharing the lists of the people stranded in Ludhiana and those who needed assistance.

"We even arranged ambulances and admitted several people to hospital as requests were received from the Priyanka Gandhi office," Sharma said, adding that similarly our workers in Amritsar and Chandigarh also got the requests for the return of migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh.

Sharma said that Priyanka Gandhi personally intervened in the process of arranging for the travel of the migrant workers and those who needed ration or any other help.

"We received request of thousands of people from Ludhiana who wanted to go back to UP. And then we prepared the list and arranged for their travel by buses, small cars and Shramik Special trains," he said.

Sharma said, after the message from Sonia Gandhi, the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Punjab government bought the train tickets worth Rs 35 crore for the migrant workers staying in the different parts of the state.

Deep Naik, Congress Vice President in Gujarat's Surat said that the helpline started by Priyanka Gandhi was of great help to connect with the people who wanted to go back to their home states during the nationwide lockdown.

Naik said, "Priyanka Gandhi led from the front and thus we were able to reach out to the maximum stranded families, who were residing in Surat and wanted to go back to their homes."

The Congress leader said, "From Gujarat, we arranged for over seven Shramik Special trains for different parts of the country most of them went to UP." Naik further said that from Surat over 25,000 people were able to go back to their native places due to the list that we got from the Congress General Secretary's office.

After the nationwide lockdown, thousands of migrant workers travelled with their belongings either on foot or bicycle to go back to their native places in the absence of transport. The exodus was one of the most striking feature that would describe the lockdowns in a longtime to come.