Congress president Sonia Gandhi started her UP campaign with a road show in Varanasi. (PTI)
Highlights
- Sonia Gandhi had set off on a 6.4 km road show through Varanasi
- At least 10,000 bikers led Mrs Gandhi's cavalcade into town
- Mrs Gandhi developed high fever and is returning to Delhi
Sonia Gandhi's road show in Varanasi had to be called off mid-way today as she took ill and is returning to Delhi. Mrs Gandhi has high fever, said doctors, who attended to her at a city hotel.
Mrs Gandhi was given a saline drip at the Varanasi airport; the Banaras Hindu University trauma centre in Varanasi was also alerted.
"Saddened that due to my ill health, I had to cut my visit to Varanasi short. Couldn't visit Kashi Vishwanath Temple either. I will come back very soon, and then visit the Kashi Vishwanath Temple," Mrs Gandhi said at the Varanasi airport.
The Congress president had arrived on Monday morning in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, to start her party's campaign for Uttar Pradesh, where elections will be held early next year.
For several hours, Mrs Gandhi, 69, stood in an SUV greeting thousands of people who gathered as her cavalcade of cars drove slowly through the streets of the city in a show of strength.
She took a break at the Modern Hotel at the Lohurabir roundabout near the fag end of her road show and it was announced some time later that she is unwell and would not continue.
Mrs Gandhi's address at a rally near Englishiya Line and a visit to Varanasi's famous Kashi Vishwanath temple too had to be cancelled.
Congress's UP chief Raj Babbar and other leaders reached the venue of the rally and apologised on behalf of Mrs Gandhi to the crowds gathered.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wished Mrs Gandhi a quick recovery in a tweet.
People offer to garland Sonia Gandhi during her roadshow through Varanasi. (PTI)
As he waited for Sonia Gandhi to arrive in Varanasi on Monday morning, the Congress's new state chief Raj Babbar admitted candidly, "Yes we need a
chamatkaar (miracle) in Uttar Pradesh," also adding, "but it has happened in the past too, even 2014 was a miracle for our opponents and we are hoping there will be a miracle this time too."
The Congress hopes to reverse this time its trend of placing last in elections in Uttar Pradesh and has rejigged its team for the election, bringing in Mr Babbar and naming former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as its chief ministerial candidate, with election strategist Prashant Kishor designing the campaign.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi with Sheila Dikshit and Raj Babbar.
Mrs Gandhi was expected to launch an attack on PM Modi and the BJP in her Dard-e-Banaras (the pain of Varanasi) rally, which the Congress says highlights a lack of development in the VIP constituency.
She was also exprected to attack UP's ruling Samajwadi Party as both national parties, the Congress and the BJP make aggressive bids this time to win the state in what is being seen as semi-final before the 2019 national election.
Varanasi is in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP did not fare very well in the last assembly election and the Congress hopes to make inroads in the region.
The BJP hopes to extend its victory in 2014, when it had won 71 of the state's 80 parliamentary seats. The Congress could win only two. In the state assembly it holds only 28 seats.
"Uttar Pradesh is already Congress-
mukt (Congress-free) now, no road show will help," said BJP's state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya.