In battleground UP, Modi, Yogi hold far more rallies, roadshows than Akhilesh, Gandhis

With Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai busy campaigning in Varanasi from where he is contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Gandhi siblings addressing just one rally and a roadshow so far, the Congress has left its UP campaign during the first two phases of elections largely to AICC general secretary in charge of the state Avinash Pande, who focused mainly on holding INDIA bloc co-ordination meetings in the districts.

In comparison, over the three weeks leading up to April 26, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had addressed 38 rallies and prabudh sammelans (intellectuals’ conferences). Even PM Modi addressed seven public meetings and led two roadshows until April 26 as against one road show in Saharanpur by AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, which she held for party candidate Imran Masood. In this period, Rahul Gandhi addressed just one rally, jointly with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Amroha for Congress candidate Danish Ali.

In UP, where the Congress campaigns have been led by one or the other Gandhi sibling over the past several elections, their absence in the campaign so far is being felt, even as party cadre await the announcement of their names from Amethi and Raebareli to boost their morale for the remaining phases.

Out of the 26 seats in western UP, polling has so far taken place in 16 seats over two phases. Polling for the remaining 10 seats would take place in the third phase on May 7

Of the 17 seats the Congress is contesting across UP in alliance with the SP as part of the INDIA bloc, six are in western UP. Five of these went to the polls in the first two phases.

The Congress’s INDIA partner SP is trying to mount its campaigning, which

mainly depends on Akhilesh Yadav. Akhilesh’s