Priyanka Gandhi’s outreach to farmers in UP has galvanised Congress at grassroots level

The grand success of the ‘kisan mahapanchayat’ addressed by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi has boosted the morale of party leaders and workers in western Uttar Pradesh.

Priyanka Gandhi launched a 10 days ‘Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan’ movement in UP to reach out to farmers with the first ‘mahapanchayat’ being held at Saharanpur on February 10.

There was a huge response to the ‘mahapanchayat’ addressed by Priyanka Gandhi attended by farmers from Saharanpur and other neighbouring areas.

There was huge applause from farmers when Priyanka Gandhi announced that her party would repeal all the three laws when voted to power.

The Congress program of ‘Jai Jawan-Jai Kisan’, based on the slogan given by late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, is aimed at reaching out to farmers and revive the party for 2022 UP assembly polls.

The Congress, under the direction of Priyanka Gandhi, has prepared a blue print to hold meeting in every village of all tehsils of 27 districts of western UP and Terai region where farmers influence local politics. The districts include Saharanpur, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Bijnore, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Hathras, Rampur, Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sitapur and Hardoi.

Congress has identified senior leaders like Nirmal Khattri, Pramod Tewari, Harinder Malik, Imran Masood, Raj Babbar, Deepak Singh, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Rakesh Sachan and Pradeep Aditya Jain to oversee the implementation of ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ movement in all districts and hold ‘mahapanchayats’ in the districts.

Hundreds of farmers from these districts visit Ghazipur border daily to participate in the farmers’ agitation. They also supply all sorts of help to farmers who are camping at the borders.

It is noteworthy that BJP became powerful in western UP as communal riots resulted in communal polarisation which helped the saffron brigade.

But recent developments in western UP which saw successful ‘mahapanchayat’ in various districts where all factions of farmers and their castes came on one platform to oppose the controversial farm laws, gave a big blow to BJP base.

Priyanka Gandhi has launched the program to strengthen the organisation at grass root level.

For the first time a team of 28,575 workers have been formed under Congress Srijan Program so that the party has presence of 25 workers in every ‘nayay panchayat’ of all the blocks of UP.

Priyanka Gandhi herself is responsible for setting up the organisation at the micro level and she is in touch with these workers through mobiles.

Congress is confident of successfully implementing the ‘Jai Jawan and Jai Kisan’ movement through recently constituted committees at ‘nayay panchayat’ level.

(IPA Service)