UP elections 2017: Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi have held joint road shows in Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra
Team Akhilesh-Rahul will not hold a road show after all in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi as Uttar Pradesh votes in the first phase of crucial assembly elections tomorrow. The
five-hour rally featuring Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and partner Rahul Gandhi of the Congress had been designed to draw attention to the young leaders as another part of the state voted. A strategy that was first tested by PM Modi in the national election of 2014.
The plan was to divert attention with the hype around a big joint rally in the PM's constituency in eastern UP, while western UP, where the BJP is seen as strong, voted.
The Congress has said that tomorrow's road show was cancelled because the administration withdrew permission earlier granted, citing celebrations in the area of the birth anniversary of a saint Guru Ravidas. The road show would be held another day, the party said.
Varanasi's District Magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra however told NDTV that officials had been informed of "no such programme for February 11," and sources said a clash of dates scuttled the road show. The Congress, before fixing the date had apparently failed to check with Akhilesh Yadav, who had already committed the date to campaigning in other parts of the states.
Mr Yadav, 43, and Mr Gandhi, 46, have held joint road shows in Lucknow, Kanpur and Agra, traveling together in a souped-up Mercedes SUV and drawing big crowds.
Varanasi has eight assembly seats, three are held by the BJP, two each won by SP and BSP and one by Congress. But since BSP MLA Uday Lal Maurya switched over to BJP, the party has four seats. Polling will be held here on March 8, the last phase of the UP elections. There have been reports of some skirmishes between local Congress and Samajwadi Party leaders over seat sharing in the area. In their alliance, the Congress as junior partner is contesting 105 of UP's 403 seats, while the Samajwadi Party is contesting the rest.
Strategist Prashant Kishor, who had designed PM Modi's winning campaign in the 2014 national election, has been drafted by the Congress for this year's UP elections and is believed to have planned the joint road show that has been postponed. PM Modi had held a mega rally driving down the winding roads of Varanasi before those elections. Rival parties had complained about the media attention he received while voting was on in other parts of the state.
The BJP swept UP in 2014, winning 71 of the state's 80 seats.
In August Last year, Congress President Sonia Gandhi's roadshow in Varanasi had to be called off mid-way as she took ill.