Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways Sarve Satyanarayana praised AICC president Sonia Gandhi to the hilt at an awareness meeting on SC/ST Sub-Plan here on Monday.
The Minister spent most of his time talking about his “association with Ms. Sonia Gandhi and Gandhi family services to the nation.” He virtually missed telling the objective of the SC/ ST Sub-Plan. Instead, he said: “What do you understand if I speak about SC/ ST Sub-Plan? Try to understand what Ms. Soniaji is doing for the dalits and vote for the Congress party.”
The meeting, an official programme, was turned into an election meeting of the Congress. The Union Minister of State raised slogans like “Sonia Gandhi zindabad” and “Congress party zindabad.”
“Except garlanding statues of Ambedkar or Jagjivan Ram on their anniversaries, the other political parties do nothing for the dalits like you and me. It is Ms. Soniaji alone who is striving for the uplift of dalits,” he said, adding, “a dalit like me could become MLA, MP and now Union Minister due to Ms. Sonia’s blessings.” Taking pot shots at YSR Congress, Mr. Satyanarayana said that Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy had failed to lead the party to victory though he was made PCC president twice. “YSR was made Chief Minister twice and now we are realising his misdeeds,” he said. The Minister, however, did not elaborate on it. Secondary Education Minister K. Parthasarathy, Vijayawada (West) MLA Velampalli Srinivas Rao and others were present.