Congress Readies Statewide Kisan Yatra in UP Ahead of 2027 Assembly Elections

With an eye on the 2027 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Congress party is preparing to launch a major outreach programme targeting the state's farming community. According to party sources, the Congress farmers' wing will kick off a statewide Kisan Yatra on September 7 from Muzaffarnagar in Western Uttar Pradesh, with the campaign extending through to the Purvanchal region.

The initiative is designed to reconnect the party with a demographic that holds significant electoral influence. The Congress aims to use the yatra to bring farmer-centric issues to the forefront of political discourse, while also seeking to rebuild its organisational strength at the grassroots level.

Key concerns slated to be highlighted during the campaign include the demand for a guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) and fair crop prices, the long-pending issue of unpaid sugarcane dues affecting farmers in Western UP, and the rising cost of agricultural inputs such as DAP fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides. The party also plans to raise the issue of stray cattle damaging crops, a problem that forces many farmers to guard their fields around the clock.

As part of the strategy, the Congress will organise Kisan Chaupals in villages, districts, and cities. Party leaders are expected to visit fields and village squares directly to listen to farmers' grievances firsthand. This outreach is seen as an attempt to strengthen the party's cadre and challenge the incumbent state government on agrarian policies.

The move underscores the Congress's effort to position itself as a champion of farmer and Dalit issues in a state where it has struggled to maintain a strong political presence in recent decades. By placing agrarian distress at the centre of its campaign, the party hopes to apply political pressure on the ruling administration well before the full-scale election campaign gets underway.