UP Congress gearing up for Assembly polls

AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Monday brainstormed with senior Congress leaders from Uttar Pradesh on the preparations for the next year's assembly polls, as the party resolved to hit the streets against the BJP government over issues such as unemployment, price rise and law and order.

With the Congress seeking to intensify organisational activities in the run up to the polls, Priyanka Gandhi held a virtual meeting with the party's advisory council to the general secretary and the working group on strategy and planning for the state. They discussed the rising prices, the coronavirus situation, the recently held panchayat elections in the state and organisational training camps, sources said. The Congress general secretary in-charge Uttar Pradesh noted during the meeting that people are troubled by soaring inflation with prices of petrol, diesel, mustard oil, fruits and vegetables "sky high".

She also pointed out that though input costs of farmers had doubled, their income had come down. Priyanka Gandhi also flagged the violence during the panchayat polls and alleged that BJP workers indulged in stone-pelting and firing. The Congress leaders who participated in the meeting denounced the Yogi Adityanath dispensation, saying it had failed on all counts.

It was resolved at the meeting that the Congress will take the fight against the BJP government to the streets over issues such as rising prices, unemployment and the "jungle raj" prevailing in the state, the party sources said. Congress' state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, senior party leaders Salman Khurshid, Rajiv Shukla, Pramod Tiwari and Rashid Alvi, among others, participated in the meeting.

The meeting comes a day after Priyanka Gandhi met Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who the sources said is likely to play a key role in preparing the Congress organisation in Uttar Pradesh for the assembly polls with a focus on strategising and booth management.