Lucknow:
Rahul Gandhi is in Varanasi; Mayawati will tour Kushinagar and Gorakhpur; Akhilesh Yadav is in Azamgarh and Sitapur, with father Mulayam Singh Yadav. Monday gives political parties the last few hours of campaigning before electioneering ends in 55 Assembly seats across 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Elections will be held to these in the first phase of polling in the state on Wednesday, February 8.
Rahul Gandhi is making one final appeal in Varanasi today. Addressing a press conference, the Congress General Secretary said, "All the political leaders in India, all the top ones, have an obsession with prime ministership. This is not Rahul Gandhi's obsession. I have another obsession....I want to correct the way we have been working in this state...My mission is to change the fate of Uttar Pradesh."
(Watch)This is an important phase for the Congress, which is looking to resurrect itself in UP after decades, under the stewardship of Mr Gandhi. In 2009, the party had won eight of the 22 Lok Sabha constituencies that cover the Assembly segments that go to the polls in the first phase. If the Congress can better that performance, it would have had a flying start to what many look at a test of Rahul Gandhi's political ability and credibility.
Yesterday, Mr Gandhi's younger sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sought to play down the make-or-break-for-Rahul notion. "It's not a matter of pride for Rahul to win this election. You already have given your love and affection to Rahul. That matters even more," she said at a rally in Amethi, Rahul's Lok Sabha constituency. Ms Vadra is campaigning in the family pocketboroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli.
(Watch)Looking to thwart every Rahul Gandhi effort is UP chief minister Mayawati, who hopes to steer her BSP to a win that will ensure that she becomes CM for a fifth time. She has ruled UP for the last five years, the first government to complete its term in recent times. In her high-voltage election rallies today, expect some more Congress and Rahul bashing. Satish Mishra, senior BSP leader, gave a sample when he said yesterday, "Rahul Gandhi mentions the elephant far more than we do in our speeches. He is so scared of the elephant. The elephant seems to be troubling him a lot in the morning, afternoon, evening and nights. The elephant even threatens him in his dreams. Since he is not able to push away the elephant, he approached the Election Commission. He told the EC that if you can't do anything else then cover the elephant. The elephant is not going to be suppressed this way, it will crush everything in its stride."
(Read: 'Elephant' haunts Rahul in his dreams, says BSP)The Samajwadi Party's father-son duo of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav are out in the field today too. UP elections 2012 mark the rise of Akhilesh, who is scripting the SP's comeback bid.
The BJP is the other contender in the four-cornered contest. For national parties, BJP and Congress, these elections are also part of a larger battle; the Congress hopes to win at least three of the five states where assembly elections are being held and says it wants to bring change to UP. The BJP says it is confident of bringing non-Congress governments in all the five states. "The Congress government never thinks about people. When asked about inflation they said that the poor started eating more and people's demand have increased. They have changed the definition of the poor in this country," senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said in Deoria yesterday.
Manipur, Punjab and Uttarakhand have already voted. UP will vote in seven phases beginning Wednesday and Goa will vote in March. Counting of votes in all five states will be held on March 6.