Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will on Sunday address a public rally at Gorakhpur ahead of the upcoming assembly elections in the state. PTI reported that the rally comes days after the Congress leader launched her party’s election campaign early this month in Varanasi, where she targetted the reported “failures” of the Yogi Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in meeting its promises to the people of the state.

The Sunday’s Gorakhpur rally is seen as critical by political watchers since the seat of Gorakhnath Math is considered Adityanath’s area of dominance, and as such, is expected to draw major attention. Priyanka Gandhi’s rally also marks the second major Congress event in the Purvanchal region, the earlier being the Varanasi rally on October 10.

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On Friday, Union home minister Amit Shah arrived in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh for a two-day visit to launch a membership drive, address the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) booth-level workers, and discuss strategy for the assembly elections.

Citing people aware of the matter, Hindustan Times reported that the home minister had a series of meetings with the state BJP leadership and discussed the blueprint for polls that are due next year.

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Meanwhile, Congress, the party has vowed to provide smartphones to 12th class pass girls, electric scooters to graduate girls, 50 per cent cut on power bills, a waiver on power dues during the COVID-19 period, financial assistance of Rs 25,000 for the poor families hit by the pandemic, and up to Rs 10 lakh in free treatment at government hospitals for patients suffering from any ailment.

Elections will be conducted in Uttar Pradesh in February and March 2022 to elect 403 members of the Legislative Assembly. The current assembly will function until May 14, 2022.

In 2017, the BJP won 312 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, Samajwadi Party 47, Congress 7, the RLD 1, Apna Dal 9, the SBSP 3, and others 1.