Lucknow, May 25: Uttar Pradesh Congress is chalking out a strategy to lodge its protest over the renaming of Amethi after dalit icon Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj and plans to hand over the responsibility of the campaign to its dalit leadership in order to counter Chief Minister Mayawati. The party unit would contest the government's decision to rename Amethi after Chatrapati Shahuji Mharaj who has no relevance in Uttar Pradesh, through political means and its frontal organisations led by its state levels and local dalit leaders would hold protest demonstration in the district, Congress spokesman Akhilesh Singh said here yesterday. Protest dharnas and demonstrations have already started in the newly carved district with eminent dalit leaders heading the campaign to drive home the point that the people there, cutting across caste lines, were not happy with the renaming of the place which owes its development and progress to the Congress and the Gandhi family, he said. The Congress leaders from Amethi are likely to meet Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri soon to submit a memorandum in this regard.
The Congress has not ruled out a legal recourse over the issue and was looking into the details of challenging it, Singh added.
Mayawati government had on Thursday last created a new district in the state comprising five assembly segments of Amethi Lok Sabha constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and named it after dalit leader Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Nagar. Bureau Report