Cong wants to connect with aam aadmi

Plans padyatra in the state to mark Sonias Dec 9 birthday

In an apparent bid to rejuvenate the party cadre and connect with the aam aadmi in the electorally largest state in the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Congress has planned a series of programmes including a one-day walkathon.

Congress leaders will undertake a padyatra or march in  the state on the occasion of AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s birthday on December 9, state party leaders said.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Nirmal Khatri will launch the padyatra from the holy town of Deva Sharif.

“It is an attempt to connect with the aam aadmi,” quipped a senior leader here.
The Congress leaders said the party will also hold a series of district and state-level meetings followed by a rally in the next few days.

“The high command has directed that all important leaders and ministers must take part in these meetings,” a leader said.

The leaders have been asked to make sure the state-level rally be like the recently held mega rally at Delhi.

“The idea is to rejuvenate the party cadre and send a message across the workers that we are not lagging behind others in preparing for the next polls,” the leaders said.

The party has also fasttracked the process of selection of candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

The ‘central observers’, who have been appointed by the party high command to select ‘winnable’ nominees, have started the process of short listing the possible candidates.

 “The party does not want to thrust any candidate from outside. Local leaders will be kept in the loop and their opinion will be given due consideration,” he asserted.

Although the Congress had bagged 21 out of 85 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls from UP, it received a severe drubbing in the recently held Assembly elections and could secure only 29 seats from the total 403.

It had to face a humiliating defeat even at the Nehru-Gandhi pocket boroughs of Raebareli and Amethi. The party could not win any Assembly seat in Amethi and was able to win only two seats in Raebareli.