LS polls: After UP, Cong turns its attention to Bihar

After Uttar Pradesh, Congress has turned its attention to Bihar, a state that sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha and where the party has been relegated to the margins of electoral politics for decades.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is set to address a 'Jan Aakansha' rally on February 3, that will bring on stage the alliance partners in the state— Lalu Prasad's RJD, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP and Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM.

A better performance in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is crucial to fulfill Rahul's dreams of making the Congress a force to reckon with in the two states that set the political discourse for the Hindi heartland.

Before the February 3 rally, the Congress' farmer's cell is all set to hit the streets in Champaran in Bihar from where Mahatma Gandhi had led a farmers' uprising through a Satyagraha in 1917.

The Mahatma's Satyagraha revived the flagging movement for independence.

“We will carry out a padayatra in Champaran on January 25-26 on agrarian distress,” Nana Patole, Chairman of the Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress told reporters here.

He said that the Congress workers would carry out similar rallies across all states between January 25 and January 30 and press for Rs 15,000 per acre as compensation for crop loss under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

On January 30, 15,000 farmers from across the country will take out a march to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Raj Ghat in the national capital to highlight farmers' issues.

In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress had declared that it would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on its own strength after the SP-BSP-RLD went ahead to form an alliance ignoring the grand-old party.