Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Rahul seeks to storm Mulayam's bastion

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi will kick up dust in Uttar Pradesh afresh, taking his campaign for Congress revival to the OBC-Muslim stronghold in the central region, long considered the pocket borough of Samajwadi Party boss Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The five-day foray, beginning Tuesday, is expected to nudge Gandhi to focus his attack on the Yadav chieftain. This could test already strained ties between Congress and SP at the Centre.

As if to quell any ambiguity, Rahul will kickstart the second leg of his campaign from Gunnaur, an assembly seat in Sambhal once represented by Mulayam, pass through the Lok Sabha constituencies of his nephew Dharmendra Yadav (Badayun), son Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj), and Shahjahanpur which has an SP MP, before culminating in a rally of 'Most Backward Castes' in rural Kanpur.

Observers feel Rahul Gandhi's UP campaign is aimed at hurting Mulayam Singh's bid to mobilize backwards and Muslims around the anti-BSP sentiment. As if to drive home the point, Congress on Monday paraded Samajwadi "defector" Rashid Masood as its prize catch, baring its intent to hit Mulayam's recovery among Muslims following the disastrous tie-up with 'saffron' Kalyan Singh during LS polls. The SP ranks are already smarting under Rahul's attack during the launch of his campaign from Phulpur, where he dubbed SP and BSP as equally corrupt.

SP is not resenting Rahul's focus on it, suspicious as it is of Mayawati's attempt to frame the coming polls as a "Rahul versus Maya" affair. It sees Mayawati's indulgence of the Congress heir apparent's attacks with aggressive ripostes is aimed at keeping voters from gravitating towards SP, her main challenger. The resultant split in anti-BSP votes will work to Mayawati's advantage, SP strategists reason. Rahul has his own reasons to escalate the offensive against SP. The Congress cannot be seen as soft on any of the principal poles, lest it is edged out by the main opposition party in an anti-BSP surge, as happened in favour of Mayawati in 2007. The trip through the OBC-Muslim belt is critical to Mulayam's fortunes. The region has been the launchpad for the post-Mandal surge of backward satraps, with the 'Mulayam vs Kalyan Singh' fight being the top draw of state politics for over a decade.

Congress has much at stake in Rahul's second-phase campaign, as it represents the party's new gambit on OBCs, MBCs and Muslims.

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