Congress to kick off 'Dhanyawad Yatra' in UP after Lok Sabha poll victory

The Congress made a major comeback in Uttar Pradesh by winning six of the 17 seats it contested in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will on Tuesday hold a public rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli as the party is set to commence a five-day ‘Dhanyawad’ or ‘thank you’ tour in the state.

Rahul Gandhi, Raebareli’s new member of parliament, and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will express their gratitude to the Congress workers today at 3:30 pm, the Congress said in a post on ‘X’ today.

In a separate post, UP Congress leader Avinash Pande informed that the party will begin its five-day ‘thank you’ tours in all 80 Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh from June 11 to June 15.

The Congress made a major comeback in Uttar Pradesh, considered the stronghold of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, by winning six seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. It had won just one seat - Raebareli Lok Sabha constituency - in the 2019 elections in the state.

The party contested the polls in UP in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party. The Congress fought on 17 seats while the SP contested on 63 seats and won 37 of them.

This alliance strategy of the Opposition, coupled with factors such as rural distress, unemployment, proved to be a major jolt to the BJP, which lost nearly half of its seats it had won last time. The BJP’s tally in UP was down to 33 from 62 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Rahul himself scored a massive victory in the Raebareli seat, previously held by his mother and veteran Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. He defeated his BJP rival Dinesh Pratap Singh by a margin of nearly 400,000 votes.

He also retained his Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala by a similar victory margin.

Overall, the Congress won 99 seats across India, emerging as the second largest party after the BJP, which won 240 of the 543 seats. The majority required to form a government at the Centre is 272, which the saffron party has achieved with the help of the National Democratic Alliance members. Narendra Modi has been chosen as the leader of the alliance and will lead the coalition government for a record third term.