Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Congress is now planning to address the state's agrarian issues through a mega campaign. The drive, ahead of state assembly polls in 2022, aims to highlight farmers' issues through 15,000 'nukkad-natak' (street plays), and logos, posters and videos for the same are already in the works.
Congress general secretory Priyanka Gandhi recently slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in the state. “To avoid any inconvenience in the programme of Chief Minister, engineers are standing with ropes in their hand. Try to tie your responsibility with another rope as the government will have to take the responsibility of the loss caused to farmers due the stray cattle menace,” she tweeted (sic).
A week earlier, The Public Works Department (PWD) in UP had deployed nine junior engineers to ensure that there were no 'stray animals' loitering around when chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited Mirzapur. The nine engineers were stationed at different places with ropes, sources had said.
Sources in Congress said that the campaign will be kicked-off somewhere in the third week of February after which the party will attempt to convert it into a pro-farmer movement. While the campaigning material for social media is being prepared, Gandhi is expected to tour some of the cities to push the drive. Sources said that the dates for her visit will be finalised in February.
Speaking to media on the agrarian campaign, UP Congress Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said, “Farmers of Uttar Pradesh are in pain due to the stray cattle menace. There are also reports of payment dues of the sugarcane farmers as well. Farmers in Bundelkhand are continuously getting notices from banks meanwhile their yield is getting affecting due to untimely rains."
He said that the party would highlight farmers' issues from the block level to tehsil, to the state's capital. "We will not just question the government but also raise relevant questions with the administration of various cities as well,” he added.
Uttar Pradesh Congress workers will be reaching out to farmers across the state with a 'Farmer-Demand Letter'. Fifty workers from each block will be given the responsibility to take these demand letters to farmers. Two street-plays will also be organised in each block, in which senior Congress leaders are also expected to participate.
Two mega rallies are also in the pipeline for the months of March and April, out of which one will be planned in Eastern UP and the other in the west.
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