Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi concluded his five-day jan sampark abhiyan (mass contact campaign) with an attack on the Mayawati government, accusing it of misusing the Central funds meant for development schemes for the poor.
Taking pot-shots at the State government, Mr. Gandhi said money is sent by the Centre for development programmes and not for ministers and officers. Addressing a rally of most backward classes (MBC) at Akbarpur-Rania in Ramabai Nagar district (formerly Kanpur Dehat district) on Saturday, the Gandhi scion alleged that funds meant for the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and schemes for Bundelkhand have been misused.
He criticised the Bahujan Samaj Party government for its ‘failure' to create job opportunities and improving the education set-up.
Alleging that U.P. has had no development in the last 22 years, he said: “If employment opportunities were created in Uttar Pradesh, the people would not have migrated to other States in search of livelihood.”
“Uttar Pradesh had been caught in a web of caste and religious politics with the Bharatiya Janata Party using religion, the Samajwadi Party caste, while the BSP elephant only ate money,” Mr. Gandhi said.
The Amethi MP assured the gathering that if the Congress came to power, employment opportunities would be created and there would be no forced migration.
Playing the MBC card in a bid to solicit their support for the Congress in the U.P. Assembly polls next year, Mr. Gandhi flayed the BSP, the SP and the BJP for allegedly ignoring the interest of the most backward and under-privileged sections. He said mobile connections had become freely available due to the efforts of the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda.
Before the Ramabai Nagar district rally, Mr. Gandhi addressed a meeting in the Bidhuna Assembly segment of Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency in Auraiya district. He charged the BSP government with overlooking the interests of the Dalits and the poor.
During his five-day programme, Mr. Gandhi addressed several Assembly-level meetings in seven districts (Bhim Nagar, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Farrukhabad, Kannauj, Auraiya and Ramabai Nagar). With a strong presence of the OBCs and Muslims, these districts are considered to be pocket boroughs of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh.
Mr. Gandhi had flagged off the programme on December 13 from Gunnaur Assembly constituency, which was won by Mr. Singh in the 2007 Assembly before he resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha from Mainpuri in 2009. Mr. Gandhi launched an attack on the SP chief in his meetings in Badaun district regarding Mr. Singh's stand on use of English and computers.
