Rahul Gandhi to attend Uttar Pradesh Congress chintan shivir

NEW DELHI: A chintan shivir of Uttar Pradesh Congress is expected to be held in the third week of this month at Mathura, where Rahul Gandhi will hear ways and means to strengthen the organisation in the politically key state which goes to assembly polls in early 2017.

Party sources said the exercise will be a first major programme to deliberate on the issue of toning of the outfit after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls which saw Congress securing just two of the total 80 seats in the backdrop of a Narendra Modi wave.

Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh since 1989 in the wake of Mandal and Mandir surge. Politics of the state has been dominated by regional parties like the SP and BSP for the last 10 years.

In the Parliamentary elections, the party could secure the pocket boroughs of Raebareli and Amethi from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi were elected respectively.

Significance is attached to the meet being held at Mathura, which is the birthplace of Lord Krishna, in Western Uttar Pradesh. BJP and its allies had secured 73 seats in UP in the last general election.