Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav will hold a road show today in Agra, which will vote on February 11.
Highlights
- Road show today in Agra for Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav
- Their parties were in conflict over route for road show
- Each wanted tour to be mapped to benefit their candidates
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress boss Rahul Gandhi hold the second of their seriously-hyped joint rallies today in Agra. Both leaders have a stack of differences about their alliance that remain unresolved, but the road show must go on. So, after their first tandem appearance in Lucknow last weekend, which pulled large crowds, Agra is today's stopover, and Kanpur is next on February 9.
The show of solidarity is aimed much at their own cadre as it is for voters - both leaders have to contend with disgruntled teams. The Congress feels that the 105 seats it has been assigned as junior partner (UP has 403 seats) are a flagrant insult to its standing. Mr Yadav's Samajwadi Party contends that for an outfit who performed skimpily in the last state election in 2012 and then the general election two years later, the Congress has been given a far bigger deal than it deserves.
Agra votes on February 11. Like in Lucknow, Mr Yadav and Mr Gandhi will address the public from atop their Vijay Rath - a refurbished Mercedes SUV.
Huge crowd seen at the Lucknow road show of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.
They are then expected to pay tribute to a statue of Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar. Agra has a strong concentration of Dalit voters in rural areas. The total aggregate Dalit vote is 21 per cent.
While the Congress and the Samajwadi Party feel the other is crowding them out, a new dispute - literally over political space- broke out on Wednesday, said sources. Local leaders from each side wanted today's road show to begin from the zone where their candidates are running. This made finalizing a road map considerably complicated -and it was filed with delays with local authorities.
The Congress wanted the campaign to begin in Agra South. The Samajwadi Party wanted the opposite- Agra North. While billionaire shoe baron Nazir Ahmed is the Congress candidate in the former, Agra South has hotelier Atul Garg of Mr Yadav's party versus Jagan Prasad Garg, who is incumbent BJP candidate, and four-time champion.
In the end, the Samajwadi Party, as the senior partner, prevailed, but not without exemplifying what lies beneath the alliance.