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Journalism of Courage
The Congress may have ridiculed the BJP’s rath yatra but the Uttaranchal unit of the party seems to have taken cue from the same. So along the lines of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s Bharat Uday Yatra that has seen him criss-crossing the country for quite some time now, the state unit of the Congress today started Sonia Sandesh Rath in a bid to defeat BJP in the hill state.
Interestingly, the BJP in the state is not banking on a rath here and is concentrating on door-to-door campaigning. Sonia Sandesh Rath, which is part of the Vikas Sankalp Yatra, was flagged off by Uttaranchal CM N.D. Tiwari from here. The yatra would traverse the entire hill state as part of the party’s strategy to highlight the achievements of the state government.
Interestingly, this is what the state unit of the BJP feels about raths. ‘‘Raths have their own limitations in a hill state as they only go on the main roads and do not cover the entire population due to geographic difficulties,’’ says Uttaranchal BJP’s media coordinator Dr Devender Bhasin. His party, like the Left parties, is staging nukkad nataks (street plays) with the help of cultural troupes. Such street plays would be staged in both Garhwal and Kumoan regions to highlight the achievements of the Vajpayee government at the Centre.
The party has also got prepared a documentary film on the achievements of Union Minister of Surface Transport Maj. Gen.B.C. Khanduri (retd), which is being screened in Pauri Garhwal constituency from where he is contesting. It is not only the Congress to roll out their poll campaign on wheels. Uttaranchal unit of the Samajwadi Party has also hit the campaign trail on a Kranti Rath. The party, which is completely on the margins in the hill state, has embarked upon a rath yatra to gain lost ground in the hills.
