In what his party is projecting as the biggest ever Kisan Yatra, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will embark on a roadshow from Deoria in eastern Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday and culminate the 2,500 kilometre journey on the borders of Delhi a month later.
Planned as a major outreach programme in the run-up to the assembly elections in UP in early 2017, the Deoria se Dilli Kisan Yatra will have Rahul raising the issues of the farmers and the main theme of the yatra will be to demand waiver of the loans taken by the farming community.
According to the organisers of the yatra, the Congress leader will not address any big rally, but will instead address numerous small meetings on the way, so that the outreach is more inter-personal in nature. Besides public meetings that are relatively smaller in scale, Rahul will also hold meetings with the residents of the villages that fall in his route, holding what is being termed as Khat Sabhas.
Simultaneous to the roadshow, during the 30 days, around 2.5 lakh Congress workers will knock on the doors of two crore households with the message that the party is with them in their demand for a loan waiver. They will get the farmers' signatures on a Kisan Mangpatra or demand letter for loan waiver. A promise will also be made that if the Congress comes to power, their loans will be waived off.
The other major themes of the roadshow will be to demand reduction of electricity rates by half and getting the farmers justice with regard to the minimum support price for their crops.
