Mission Super 30 is Congress war strategy for UP

LUCKNOW: While Congress will contest all 80 parliamentary seats after being nudged out of the SP-BSP alliance, the party’s resurrection plan codenamed, Mission Super 30, includes a more realistic focus on one-third seats, which the party will go all out to win. “The party will focus on 30 seats, where we can make a comeback. We are working aggressively on our blueprint and this includes 22 seats won by the party in 2009 Lok Sabha polls,” said an All-India Congress Committee member.
Besides Amethi and Rae Bareli, Congress bagged the key seats of Moradabad, Bareilly, Kheri, Dhaurhara, Unnao, Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Akbarpur, Jhansi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich, Shravasti, Gonda, Dumariyaganj, Maharajganj, Kushinagar in 2009.In bypolls held thereafter, state Congress president Raj Babbar won the Firozabad seat taking the tally to 22.
In remaining eight seats, Congress sees a possibility of a win through mobilization of leaders, cadre and precise caste calculations. Four seats, on which Congress came second in 2014 Lok Sabha polls are Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Kanpur. Seats on which Congress candidates secured over a lakh votes have also been included in the Super 30 category — Mirzapur, Allahabad and Jhansi. The last in the list is Phulpur, once a Congress bastion during the Nehru era.
Former Congress MPs could be fielded from these seats and most have already hit the field. Former MP from Unnao, Annu Tandon’s poll managers are working overtime for over a year. Her publicconnect was not lost even after her drubbing. Former
Dhauraha MP, Jitin Prasada and western UP leader, Imran Masood are holding karyakarta sammelans. Ticket frontrunners from Mirzapur is Laliteshpati Tripathi, who is holding jan-sampark and kisan sabhas.
Senior leaders are mum on strategy. UP Congress president Raj Babbar said: “We are going to perform better than previous elections .” Sources said a seat-wise campaign strategy would be rolled out for constituencies. “Expert data analysts have been hired to work out booth and caste-equations for these seats,” said a Congressman in the national media cell.