Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi launch joint campaign for UP elections

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday launched their joint campaign for the upcoming assembly election in the state.

After addressing their first joint press conference since the alliance was formally announced on 17 January, the two leaders set off on a 12-km roadshow starting from the Gandhi statue at Hazratganj through most of old Lucknow in a show of unity with the tagline— ‘UP ko ye saath pasand hai’ (UP likes this alliance).

Positioning the alliance as an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) front, Rahul Gandhi said this was an alliance of 3Ps.

“This is an alliance for the progress, prosperity and peace of UP and it will fight against the BJP’s divisive politics of anger and for the youth and development of the state,” he said at the press conference.

Akhilesh Yadav, the chief ministerial candidate, called it a people’s alliance. “People want this alliance to be successful. If the cycle gets a hand then imagine how fast the cycle can move. These are the wheels of development. There is no doubt that we will get more than 300 seats,” he said at the press conference.

After months of negotiations and a last minute intervention by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi, the two parties reached a final seat-sharing arrangement on 22 January with the Congress getting 105 and SP 298 of the 403 assembly seats. Elections will be held in the state in seven phases from 11 February till 8 March.

While posing a significant challenge to the BJP, the two parties are also trying to consolidate the minority vote in the state, especially with a resurgent Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) eyeing the same electorate.

Slamming the BJP for its decision to ban high currency notes, Yadav said, “This alliance is an answer to those who made people stand in lines due to demonetization. Now, people will once again stand in lines, this time to vote us to power.”