According to Congress leaders, the Jhansi rally will focus on the failure of the Mayawati government to bring any relief to farmers in the Bundelkhand region, which has witnessed drought and a high incidence of suicides by farmers.

Claiming that the Congress was playing the role of a constructive opposition party, AICC general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh says: “There is severe drought in Bundelkhand for the last three years; villages after villages are getting deserted due to migration. But the state government has been of no help. It is not able to spend the money it has got from the Centre under the rural employment guarantee programme.”

The Congress also plans to raise the issue of compensation to farmers displaced by Taj Expressway as well as those who do not want to give up their land. The Taj Expressway is Chief Minister Mayawati’s pet project to link eastern and western UP.

The party has also sent teams to 19 districts covered under the Ganga Expressway to collect reports about the problems faced by farmers. Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party has also been organising agitation of farmers against the same project.

Asked about its ‘Enemy No. 1’ in UP, state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna says: “We treat both Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav at par. If the SP regime was bad, the BSP’s is worse. She had come to power promising to settle two issues in the state — law and order and corruption. Both have escalated noticeably during her regime.”