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Sonia to visit UP before Cong election

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Sonia Gandhi's scheduled jan sampark (mass contact) visit to crucial areas of Uttar Pradesh two days before the elections to the Congress president's post has underscored the party leadership's concern about Jitendra Prasada's challenge from the state.

While the election is scheduled for November 11, Sonia will be in UP on November 9 in order to influence All India Congress Committee and Pradesh Congress Committee delegates. Significantly, Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of AICC and PCC delegates.

Congress sources indicated that she will be visiting Fatehpur, Lucknow, Bundelkhand, Allahabad, Banda, Pratapgarh and Rae Bareily.

Sonia's scheduled visit to Uttar Pradesh comes in the wake of several complaints by Prasada to the party's central election committee chairman Ram Niwas Mirdha that Sonia's loyalists are trying to unethically trying to ensure her re-election.

Prasada has been active in the state with his supporters in an apparent bid to challenge Sonia, even though his supporters have privately conceded that the challenge will be mostly symbolic.

"Rajesh Pilot was the only Congress leader who had the guts and gumption to look our party chief in the eye and call a spade a spade. He did not hesitate to underline that certain party policies were not in its best interests. Prasad has taken up cudgels for the party's rank and file who feel that sycophants rule the roost today at the cost of genuine inner-party democracy," said Meenakshi, who is close to Prasada follower Begum Noor Bano.

She pointed out that Prasada had repeatedly brought to the party high command's notice irregularities by Sonia's 'henchmen'. "He contended that state party chief Sriprakash Jaiswal was actively working in Sonia's favour."

Congress spokesmen Prithviraj Chauhan and Anand Sharma have been consistently maintaining that Sonia will be re-elected unopposed but her scheduled sojourn to Uttar Pradesh indicates otherwise.

"Why this jan sampark in UP just a couple of days before the election?" asked Sameer Singh, another Prasada acolyte. "The people in this state are not fools to accept sops. Her visit would have some credibility if she came to Uttar Pradesh six months back," he pointed out.

Singh lamented that the acrimonious fight between Prasada and the erstwhile UPCC chief Saman Khursheed, who had replaced him, was "controlled " from 10 Janpath by Sonia's advisors, notably Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and her personal assistant Vincent George.

According to Congress sources, the party high command is apprehensive that during her visit there is a possibility that followers of the Prasada camp might hold black-flag demonstrations against her. This is being regarded as ominous on the eve of her re-election.

The enthusiastic response accorded to the Congress chief last month on her visit by train to Padrauna in UP appears too have convinced her crisis managers that similar visit to various areas of the state could improve her prospects for re-election by a wide margin. The sources pointed out that Sonia's advisors felt that Prasada could be dealt a body blow by Sonia visit.

It is learnt that UPCC chief Jaiswal has assured Sonia that she would face virtually no difficulty in making Prasada bite the dust.

But that does not seem to have dampened Prasada's followers.

"His (Prasada's) challenge to Sonia is not to win. The idea is to drive home the point that if the party believes in inner-party democracy, it should not put shackles on those who fight party elections," the sources pointed out.

They added that Prasada is unconcerned about the whispering campaign in the AICC that if he challenges Sonia, she will ensure that he does not find a place in the party's apex decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee.

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