New Delhi, May 02: Congress President Sonia Gandhi is likely to formally launch the party”s preparations for next year”s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh at a meeting of the state leaders in Varanasi on May 18 and 19.
While Gandhi will be present on the second day of the conference, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi is likely to be the key speaker on the opening day.
Indications to this effect were given by AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who is in-charge of the party”s affairs in the state.
Singh dismissed suggestions that the coming together of Congress, SP and BSP in the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G issue has any relevance to the politics of Uttar Pradesh.
He said that SP and BSP members were protesting against the PAC Chairman not giving them enough time to go into the report.
Replying to a question, Singh said BJP, which had been in power in Uttar Pradesh a decade back, has now become “irrelevant”.
He said that the Congress was turning proactive on the preparations for the Assembly polls and it would set up a Pradesh Election Committee in a couple of days and come out with the first list of party candidates by the month end.
The Congress has already announced that it would go on its own in Uttar Pradesh and only tie up with some smaller parties.
When reminded of the poll disaster Congress suffered in Bihar where it went alone in the Assembly elections last year, Singh said the situation in Uttar Pradesh is different and expressed confidence that the party would perform well in 2012 Assembly elections there.
—–PTI—–