UP Launch of Jodo Yatra: Cong seeks to retake territory in western Uttar Pradesh

The Congress, which has been out of power in the state since 1989 and at the center following the 2014 parliamentary polls, has planned to use its UP Jodo Yatra, which got underway on Wednesday from Saharanpur’s Gangoh town, to lay the groundwork for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party’s goal is to win over its traditional support base of Muslims and Dalits, particularly in West UP.

Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai said, “We will be able to challenge the might of the BJP in east UP after regaining ground in west UP.”

Eleven districts and sixteen Lok Sabha seats with a sizable concentration of Muslims will be covered by the 20-day yatra.

Following a puja performed at the Maa Shakumbhari Siddhpeeth temple by party officials, the yatra got underway.

“The yatra is to highlight the pain of farmers, laborers, traders, youth, and women, who are unhappy with the government,” Rai said. The yatra will end in Lucknow on January 12.

The 35% to 40% of Muslim voters in the Rohilkhand region’s Lok Sabha constituencies—Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, Moradabad, Sambhal, Amroha, Rampur, Bareilly, and Badaun—are crucial in determining the destiny of candidates.

The Congress intends to organize farmer support when the yatra passes through Uttar Pradesh’s sugarcane heartland.

Rai said, “We will bring up the issues of the BJP government’s failure to adjust the sugarcane rate during the yatra and the delay in paying farmers’ outstanding arrears.”

The Bahujan Samaj Party gained four Lok Sabha seats in 2019—Saharanpur, Bijnor, Nagina, and Amroha—while the Samajwadi Party took home the seats in this region for Moradabad, Sambhal, and Rampur.

The Congress had a stronghold in the Rohilkhand area. A Congress spokesperson said, “The party won 21 seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, including Bareilly, Moradabad, Kheri, and Dhaurhara in the Rohilkhand area.

According to ground reports from the Rohilkhand and West UP regions, the Muslim population is voting more in favor of Congress in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.

According to him, the Congress wants to strengthen its position among Muslims during the yatra in Rohilkhand and let its followers know that it is actively fighting the BJP and regaining the support base that the SP and BSP had taken.

Following the INDIA bloc meeting on Monday in New Delhi, the Congress intends to gauge the political climate in Uttar Pradesh during the yatra.

During their meeting on Sunday, the leaders of the Uttar Pradesh Congress advised the central leaders to pursue vigorous negotiations for seat-sharing with the SP.

They argued that the party needed to win a fair number of seats in the Lok Sabha.

The Congress will assert its claim to the 21 Lok Sabha seats it won in 2009 during discussions over seat sharing.

The Congress was able to get a respectable vote percentage in these 21 seats even though it lost the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.

Rai said on Wednesday that the national leadership would make the decision about seat-sharing for the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha elections.

“The yatra is being organized with the inspiration of the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi,” UP Congress spokesman CP Rai said. The anti-people policies of the state and federal BJP governments would be emphasized by the Congress. Throughout the yatra, the Congress will propagate the theme of nonviolence and intergroup peace.

Before, Congressman Imran Masood said over the phone that “the officials were purposefully causing difficulties for the yatra along its path.” They have qualms about the Congress yatra, but they have no problems with the RSS’s citywide programming.

He said that “we will abide by it” now that authorization has been granted to route the yatra along the bypass road.