Rahul Gandhi to cover 42 UP districts in 25-day roadshow

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi will undertake a long winding road show from eastern UP to the western region early next month to shore up support for Congress for next year's assembly polls.

The yatra will start from Deoria and touch roughly 42 districts before culminating in the vicinity of the national capital, possibly Meerut. It would see the Congress vice-president stay on the road for around 25 days.

The proposed yatra is another of the Congress campaign activity in the hope of landing in a position of reckoning in the state where it has languished on the margins for around three decades.

The party has announced what is seen as a leap of faith as its objective for the assembly polls, even declaring Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate to lend seriousness to its claim. Rahul's yatra would come in the thick of two other 'yatras' led by Raj Babbar and Sheila Dikshit which rolled out on August 21, and seek to compound their political effect. Babbar and Dikshit are to cover 66 districts over one and half months. The campaign plan in terms of route and date of launch is being given a final shape. Sources said Rahul will lead his roadshow, possibly in a small bus, and would address small gatherings on the way. Besides conveying that Congress is going into the battle with a serious intent, the strategists feel the road show would also activate the workers on the ground.