Pratigyan Yatra, ghar wapsi, soft Hindutva: Priyanka Gandhi's plan to revive Congress in Uttar Pradesh

Striving hard to remain politically relevant in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has decided to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to revive itself in the state, which includes a 12,000-kilometre-long Pratigyan Yatra, ghar wapsi of the old guards and soft Hindutva.

The grand old party, which has been reduced to a fringe player in the politically crucial state, has also decided to project itself as a ''real alternative'' in UP, where assembly polls are due in March next year.

Congress general secretary and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been camping in the state since Friday, has asked the party leaders and workers to make the Pratigyan Yatra, which is slated to begin from September 20, a big success.

The decision to undertake the Yatra was taken at a meeting of the party held in Lucknow in the presence of Priyanka.

''We will expose the BJP government over its mismanagement of the second wave of Covid-19, deteriorating law and order, rising crimes against women and unemployment,'' said a senior UP Congress leader.

Priyanka has also asked the senior party leaders to speak to the old guards, who have either left the party or are inactive, and urge them to return to the party fold before the polls.

''If need be I will myself visit them to persuade them to come back,'' Priyanka was quoted as having told the party leaders at the meeting.

Priyanka, who arrived at Raebareli, her mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday, paid obeisance at the famous 'Churwa Hanuman Temple' in the district.

The senior Congress leader said that the party would 'stick' to its soft Hindutva policy in the state. ''We will not let the BJP's strategy to project us anti-Hindu succeed,'' he added.

Priyanka had in the past visited famous Hindu temples in Saharanpur and Prayagraj, dropping hints that she would follow soft Hindutva to counter the BJP in the UP polls.

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