UP Assembly elections 2017: Rahul vows farm debt waiver

Ahead of 2017 UP polls, Congress is seeking to attract over 22 million farmer households by taking recourse to the debt waiver

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made a strong pitch for another farm debt waiver scheme in the run-up to the 2017 Uttar Pradesh (UP) polls.

The previous United Progressive Alliance government headed by the Congress at the Centre had implemented a similar scheme in 2008 to waive farm loans in the country to the tune of Rs 72,000 crore.

With the Congress leaving no stone unturned to regain its past political glory in UP where it has been out of power for almost 27 years now, the party is seeking to attract the about 22 million farmer households in the state by taking recourse to the debt waiver.

Under the tutelage of master poll strategist Prashant Kishor alias PK, Gandhi unveiled his ‘khat sabha’ (charpoy council) meetings in the backwaters of UP with the first port of call at Deoria in eastern UP. Flanked by senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and local MLA Akhilesh Pratap Singh, Gandhi made a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging the central government had waived loans worth about Rs 50,000 crore of capitalists while leaving the farmers in the lurch.

The party had especially brought about 1,500 ‘khats’ for the event, which were later taken away by the villagers after the event got over, much to the amusement of party leaders and the battery of mediapersons. Gandhi said the Modi government had backtracked on its promise of providing succour to the farmers at a time when farm input was rising and farmers were not getting their fair profit.

He also referred to the steep power tariffs in the state, drawing cheers from the crowd that had gathered to listen to the heir apparent of the Congress. The well-attended meeting boosted the morale of the party leaders.

 

Preparations for Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Khat sabha’ at Dudhnath Baba Mandir maidan in Rudrapur. Photo: ANI

Gandhi further said the Modi government had stopped raising the minimum support price of farm commodities, which had made agriculture a losing proposition. Interestingly, Gandhi did not target the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government in UP and devoted all his energies to attack Modi in his  10-minute address. The 'khat sabhas' are designed to allow Gandhi to interact with farmers while sitting on the rustic ‘charpoy' in some of the remoter districts of the state.

In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, PK had devised a similar strategy for then BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who went on to rally support of the common man through ‘chai pe charcha'. the Congress is desperately seeking to improve its tally in the state assembly from under 30 now in the 403-member Vidhan Sabha. During these interactions, Gandhi would also answer queries raised by locals and subtly hold out pre-poll promises as well, sources said. Team PK would collect the feedback of the people to incorporate these in the party’s poll manifesto for the state. Besides, other prominent state party leaders would interact with the general public and an estimated 250,000 party cadres would reach out to 20 million households in UP.

The cadres would also distribute poll publicity material to people, including mobile phone stickers.

Over the next month, Gandhi is scheduled to tour 39 districts and cover about 2,500 km across 55 of UP’s 80 parliamentary and 223 of its 403 assembly constituencies. The Congress is hoping to expand its vote bank to include upper caste voters, apart from its traditional constituency of dalits and Muslims.

To attract Brahmin electorate, the party had announced the candidature of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit as its CM face in UP.