Rahul starts 2017 UP battle... with eye on 2019

The Gandhi scion while addressing Khat Sabhas in Deoria and Kushinagar of eastern UP spoke at length on the plight of farmers in the state. He promised that he would fight to get them a loan waiver the way he got them relief in Land Acquisition Bill.  

Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘ignoring’ the plight of farmers, Gandhi promised a loan waiver to the farmers along with reduction in power tariff and higher farm support price.

“I will tell Modiji to protect the interests of farmers because they provide food to the country.  There are three ways to do that. The first and main one is to waive their loans. If you remember when our government was there we waived Rs 70,000 crore of their loans. What is happening now is that last year, the Modi government waived loans of Rs 50,000 crore of big industrialists,” said Gandhi, while adding, “If you want you can waive loans of big people, but why not waive the loans of farmers? Like we waived Rs 70,000 crore, you should also do for farmers. Modiji should waive loans of farmers of Uttar Pradesh and of the country.”

Congress Vice President who started his 2,500 km road show from Deoria in the eastern part of UP, will cover 39 districts, 55 Lok Sabhas and 223 Assembly constituencies to reach out to the people ahead of crucial polls slated early next year.

Congress is out of power for more than two decades from the state. Gandhi zeroed in on the issue of farmer plight in the state and said that his campaign will seek to put pressure on Modi and his government to address farmers’ problems. “Rahulji understands the plight of farmers. He will raise these issues in Delhi and we will fight for the rights of the farmers. We will do everything possible to get the loans of farmers waived,” said MLA Deoria Akhilesh Pratap Singh.  

The Congress Vice President also stressed that the farmers are also informing him about high electricity bills. “Electricity bills should be halved,” he said.

In the next three days, Gandhi will cover Kushinagar, Gorakhpur, Sant Kabirnagar and Basti. Apart from addressing Khat Sabhas and door-to-door campaign, Congress VP will do roadshows and small meetings with labourers, women and youth. His month-long mahayatra will culminate in Delhi.

The poll pundits point that Congress’s blitzkrieg poll campaign is crafted keeping not just the crucial state elections in mind but also 2019 general assembly polls. Already UP poll is being dubbed as a sort of semi-final for major political parties.