Lucknow, Dec 20 (IANS): The Congress unit in Uttar Pradesh will commence its "UP Jodo Yatra" on Wednesday in an effort to regain lost ground and to gear up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Starting from the Shakumbhari Devi temple in Saharanpur, the 20-day yatra will cover 11 districts and 16 Lok Sabha constituencies.

It will pass through the Muslim-dominated areas of Rohilkhand region.

It is seen as an outreach towards the Muslim community by the party.

The Lok Sabha constituencies in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Moradabad, Rampur and Bareilly districts have 35 per cent to 40 per cent Muslims voters whose votes are decisive in deciding the fate of a candidates.

The Congress has planned to reach out to the farmers, youths, women, traders, religious leaders, craftsmen during the yatra.

Party leaders and workers will hold dialogue with wooden furniture manufacturers in Saharanpur; sugarcane farmers in Muzaffarnagar and Bijnor; brass manufacturers in Moradabad; “zari zardozi” workers and bamboo craftsmen in Bareilly; craftsmen in Rampur; cane farmers in Shahjahanpur and Lakhimpur; and prominent religious leaders in various districts.

The 16 Lok Sabha constituencies that yatra will cover were once strongholds of the Congress.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had bagged 21 seats in Uttar Pradesh including Bareilly, Kheri, Dhaurhara and Mordabad that will fall in the route of the yatra.

Though the party lost the seats in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it is now working to make a comeback in the state politics with the support of its traditional support base -- Muslim, Other Backward Class (OBC) and Dalits.

The yatra is a route for the party to send a message to its constituency and to regain its support base.