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Sonia, Gadkari and Akhilesh head to Rae Bareli on V-Day

February 14, 2012 16:10 IST

They may not see eye to eye on a number of issues, but some sworn political rivals have converged in the same constituency in Uttar Pradesh on Valentine's Day.
 
While Congress president Sonia Gandhi  joined her daughter Priyanka  to campaign in Rae Bareli, her parliamentary constituency, son Rahul will be criss-crossing neighbouring Hardoi before moving on to Agra to address more rallies there.
 
Significantly, this is the first time during the current poll campaign that Sonia and Priyanka will be campaigning together in Rae Bareli.
 
In fact, Rae Bareli, where polling was scheduled on February 19, was on the radar of other prominent leaders like Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari, his predecessor Rajnath Singh as well as state Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who were addressing rallies in the high-profile constituency on Tuesday.
 
SP supremo Mulayam Singh, who flew out of Lucknow in the morning, was busy travelling to Farrukhabad, Kannauj and Hardoi.
 
UP Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has flown to Banda, from where she will also go to Fatehpur to address public rallies.
 
Meanwhile, BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is visiting Pratapgarh, Banda and Chitrakoot.

Lucknow appears to be on top of the BJP's agenda. With five more days to go for polling in the state capital, the party is all set to pump in all its resources there. Besides Rajnath  Singh and Nitin Gadkari, party veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, former Uttarakhand chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as well as popular TV star Smriti Irani will campaign in the state capital.

Sharat Pradhan In Lucknow