Congress to launch phase 2 of UP campaign from August 21

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) The Congress will launch its second phase of campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections from August 21 to October 9 and two convoys of party activists and leaders will conduct the campaign, party officials announced on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media, Congress General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of the party's affairs in Uttar Pradesh, said: "Looking at the area and population of the state, we will cover 64-65 districts during the campaign. Rest of the districts were covered in the first phase."

He said: "I am confident after the kind of response we recieved in our first phase of campaign full of love and support, in the next phase when we visit these 65 districts we hope we'll receive similar support."

Campaign convoy No. 1 will cover the districts of Lucknow, Barabanki, Bahraich, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar (Padrauna), Maharajganj, Rae Bareilly, Pratapgarh, Kaushambi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar (Akbarpur), Jaunpur, Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadoi), Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Baghpat, Muzzaffarnagar, Shamli, Saharanpur, Aligarh, Kasganj, Sambhal, Badaun, Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Auraiya, Etawah, and Pilibhit.

The campaign convoy No. 2 will cover Lucknow, Faizabad, Sultanpur, Amethi, Sant Kabir Nagar (Khalilabad), Basti, Siddharth Nagar (Domariyaganj), Deoria, Ballia, Mau, Gazipur, Chandauli, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Fatehpur, Banda, Unnao, Kanpur Dehat (Akbarpur), GB Nagar, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Bijnor, Mathura, Hathras, Etah, Farrukhabad, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jalaun (Orai), Hamirpur, Mahoba and Chitrakoot.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi suffered dehydration and shoulder injury during her recent roadshow in Varanasi during the first phase of the party's campaign in the state. She was admitted for several days and underwent a shoulder surgery in a Delhi hospital and was discharged recently.