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National

National

Groupism mars Rahul's road show

Atiq Khan

Poor response to election meetings in State capital

LUCKNOW: With groupism and infighting in the Congress reportedly surfacing during Rahul Gandhi's election meetings and road show here on Monday, the party has pulled out all the stops to ensure that party president Sonia Gandhi's rally on Wednesday does not meet the same fate.

On Tuesday, general secretaries Ashok Gehlot and Mukul Wasnik held a meeting with the State office-bearers of the National Students Union of India to ensure the success of the rally at all cost.

While Mr. Gandhi drew an encouraging response in Western Uttar Pradesh, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Barabanki and Sitapur, he was in for a surprise here. After addressing a meeting in Mohanlal Ganj, he drove into the city through Sarojininagar and Lucknow Cantonment Assembly constituencies on Monday evening. Barring Congress supporters, Mr. Gandhi's target audience — the youth — was missing.

Congress sources attributed the poor response to lack of publicity. They said the party candidates from the two constituencies should have informed the people about the road show.

The situation was retrieved when Mr. Gandhi moved across Lucknow East, where people reportedly flocked to greet him.

In Lucknow Central constituency, which has a large number of Muslim voters, the response was good.

However, the turnout at the election meeting at Nadan Mahal Park in the Old City turned out to be a huge embarrassment for the Congress. Only a few hundred people, mostly Congress workers, were present to hear him. From there Mr. Gandhi went to Rajajipuram, also in Lucknow Central, where his road show ended late in the night.

Infighting had delayed the announcement of candidates for Lucknow East, Lucknow Central, Lucknow Cantonment and Lucknow West constituencies. Party sources alleged that an influential Congress leader, who ran a virtual parallel administration from his residence, appropriated the distribution of tickets. He was instrumental in getting nominations for Murli Ahuja from Lucknow Cantonment and Sushil Dubey from Lucknow West.

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