New Delhi:
After an aggressive build-up that began earlier year, the Congress will officially sound the poll bugle in Uttar Pradesh with party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi kickstarting his campaign today.
The starting point for the young Gandhi's campaign will be Phulpur, a small town around 30 kilometres from Allahabad. The choice of location is strategic in that Phulpur was the constituency from where former prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was elected to Parliament in the first Lok Sabha elections. With eyes firmly set on the assembly election in 2012, Congress managers, through the town, would be hoping to re-ignite the Nehru-Gandhi family connect with the people and the state at the large.
The 41-year-old Gandhi scion's intentions of reviving the party's fortunes in the state were made clear last year when he launched a high-voltage campaign against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government led by Mayawati in the state. Significantly, the young leader targeted the state government in a major way over land acquisition - an emotive issue with the farmers that saw a major unrest in several parts of the state against the administration.
Under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, the last few months have seen the Congress making constant and concerted attacks on the BSP. Something that prompted party supremo Ms Mayawati to hit out at Mr Gandhi, as recently as Saturday, where she asked him to focus more on Delhi than her state UP.
"Instead of expressing his anger here, it would be better if the Yuvraj of Congress vents his ire at the Congress-led Central government for its failure to contain inflation and adopting step-motherly treatment towards the development of the state," Ms Mayawati had said at a function in Lucknow.