Is Congress wooing military families in Uttarakhand?

With a large number of people from Uttarakhand serving in the military, Congress is making special efforts to woo voters from such families in Uttarakhand in the run up to Assembly polls.

Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in the state on December 16 to celebrate the Bangladesh War veterans as well as pay homage to country’s first Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, who died in a chopper crash last week.

The Vijay Samman Rally scheduled for Thursday at Dehradun will have in attendance a large number of 1971 war veterans and other military veterans. Sources said the rally will also pay homage to Gen Rawat, who hails from Pauri in Uttarakhand.

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This is part of Congress’ plans to hold programmes across India on December 16 to celebrate the victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war. It was on 16 December, 1971, Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender, leading to the creation of Bangladesh.

The rally in Uttarakhand comes a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi attends a function in New Delhi that concludes the year-long celebration of 50th Anniversary of Bangladesh Liberation War.

Uttarakhand is home to a sizable section of veterans as well as serving military personnel and Congress is attempting to woo them as the state is heading to Assembly polls early next year.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal said programmes like honouring war veterans and war widows and commemorating the Bangladesh Liberation War-1971 should be conducted in a befitting manner at district level across the country.

He said the Congress’ programmes on the 1971 War celebrations, which were delayed due to Covid-19, started in mid-July with a district level meeting in Haryana’s Panchkula on July 10.

District and block levels in some of the "soldier states" like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan could be continued beyond 2021, he said.

Maximum district meetings have been held in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Congress has so far organised over 100 such meetings throughout the country.

State-level functions started on November 16 with a meeting in Nagaland capital Kohima followed by other states. Venugopal also directed the states, which have not concluded their state level functions, to organise such meetings up to December 31.

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