Sheila Dikshit Rides Bus To UP As Congress Launches Poll Campaign

Sheila Dikshit, the Congress’ 78-year-old chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh, today began a three-day bus tour to Kanpur as her party launched its campaign for India’s biggest state.

The bus with slogan “27 saal, UP behaal” (27 years of UP in ruins)” was flagged off by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and deputy Rahul. Accompanying Ms Dikhsit on the 600-km drive is Raj Babbar, the actor-turned-politician who’s been named the head of the party in Uttar Pradesh. En route, they will stop to interact with party workers.

Sources say the Congress aims to target not one particular party that has governed Uttar Pradesh, but all governments that have led the state since the Congress was last in charge. “Only Congress can be the answer in UP where other parties are trying to divide people on the basis of religion,” said senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is also Ms Dikshit’s co-passenger on the bus.

On Ms Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s role in poll-bound UP, Congress campaign chief Sanjay Singh said, “She is a young dynamic leader and we have been demanding for her active role in the party for a long time. I’m sure she won’t disappoint.”