Yatra meant as boost for SP, says BJP

Rahul Gandhi's 2,500km roadshow to focus on UP farmers

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi will launch his mega roadshow in Uttar Pradesh on September 6, starting from Deoria eastern UP and travelling 2,500km before culminating in Delhi.The 'mahayatra' will touch 39 districts, 55 Lok Sabha constituencies and 233 assembly constituencies, a mega outreach to voters in the heartland, AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad said on Monday.Asked if the Congress vice-president would visit Ayodhya as part of mahayatra, Azad evaded a direct answer, saying, "He would visit whatever places that would come in between and, please, do not create any controversy out of it."Azad announced that there will be no rallies on the way, but Rahul will routinely address small meetings. He will also hold roadshows in towns and cities on his route.The yatra has been billed as a major Congress outreach ahead of the 2017 elections in UP, and will run parallel to the twin yatras currently under way, which are led by state unit chief Raj Babbar and by chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit Azad said Rahul will meet farmers, workers in the unorganised sector and unemployed persons and hear their grievances.The BJP on Monday dubbed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s forthcoming ‘mahayatra’ in poll-bound UP as an attempt to help the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the 2017 assembly polls. “His (Rahul Gandhi) attempt is to split votes and help the SP, which managed the “yuvraj” win from Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls,” said BJP spokesperson, Shrikant Sharma. He alleged that Rahul was accused in scams and had no issues to raise in UP. “Congress-led UPA government broke all records of corruption, therefore, Rahul has no ground to face the electorate in the state,” he said. “Rahul is out on bail in the Rs 5,000 crore National Herald case and wants to eat into anti-incumbency votes. He wants to stop BJP's developmental agenda in UP, ” Sharma said. “This mahayatra is to help SP win by cutting into anti-incumbency votes,” Sharma added. He also said that Congress had received support from SP and BSP during its 10-year rule at the Centre and is now working to help them.