The RLD, a smaller party by any reckoning, has decided to mobilize public support in the streets to demonstrate its “strength”. Being a senior partner in INDIA bloc, the Samajwadi Party has already announced that it would contest on 65 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, leaving 15 seats for the alliance partners.

The Congress and RLD are, however, looking for extra seats; which is why they have launched their own yatras in the predominantly Muslim areas of the state in a bid to confuse Samajwadi Party voters and to demand more seats. The RLD has a base only in Jat-dominated western UP, which is why the Choudhry Charan Singh Sandesh Rath Yatra was launched from Saharanpur on December 10 and ended at Kishan Ghat in New Delhi on the birth anniversary of the only Jat Prime Minister.

The Choudhry Charan Singh Sandesh Rath Yatra covered 11 districts in Western UP and targeted farmers and unemployed youth. The yatra, led by senior RLD leader Choudhry Neerpal Singh succeeded in mobilising the jat community to come out in the streets and extend support to RLD president Jayant Choudhry, grandson of Choudhry Charan Singh.

Significantly, Jayant Choudhry is Member of Rajya Sabha thanks to support from the Samajwadi Party. But that is stopping Jayant from seeking a “respectable” number of seats for his party. The Congress is pretty much in the same frame of mind. But the Congress is on a sticky wicket with one MP in the Lok Sabha and only two MLAs and a total vote share of less than three percent.

Congress state unit president Ajay Rai launched the “UP Jodo Yatra” from Saharanpur on December 20. This Yatra is aimed at mobilizing support for the party and boosting the morale of the party workers who aren’t in high spirits after the Congress defeats in the three states of MP, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The ‘UP Jodo Yatra’ also aims to prepare the ground for the second phase of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which will kick-off next month. Since the ‘UP Jodo Yatra’ covers 15 Lok Sabha seats in 11 districts of western and central UP, the attempt will be to cover Muslim-dominated areas of the state in line with the Congress aim to win over the Muslim community which plays a crucial role in at least 30 Lok Sabha seats.

The Yatra will cover Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Shahjahanpur and Sitapur. According to senior party leaders, 150 corner meetings will be held by the Yatra. UPCC president Ajay Rai has concentrated attacks on the failure of the BJP’s “double engine ki sarkar '' even as other state Congress leaders engage with people and record their grievances while explaining the party's viewpoints on key issues. How much impact these yatras will make on the general public and influence senior partner Samajwadi Party is for the future to tell. (IPA Service)