Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he had placed his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia in charge of Uttar Pradesh with the “target” of forming government in the State after the next Assembly elections.
This came a day after he appointed Ms. Vadra and Mr. Scindia as general secretaries in-charge of U.P. east and U.P. west respectively, and indicated a long-term role for her.
“We have come to defeat the BJP and wipe them out,” said Mr. Gandhi, addressing a meeting in Salon, Rae Bareli, on the concluding day of his two-day tour.
Reiterating his stance on the SP and BSP, Mr. Gandhi said he had respect for their leaders Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, who have formed an alliance ignoring the grand-old party, but the Congress would fight the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with full force. The party also needs to build its own ground, he stressed.
Mr. Gandhi also accused the Narendra Modi government and BJP of dividing communities and regions, saying “wherever they go, they spread hatred.”
He said Mr. Modi was a “symbol” of hate and anger and nobody could stop the Congress from removing him from the Prime Minister’s post. The Congress president said the BJP created fights between Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab and Jats and non-Jats in Haryana. He also said the BJP drove a wedge between Hindus and Muslims and north and south India, while setting the north-east “on fire”. “I want to tell you clearly that hate won’t get you anything in this country. Hatred causes only loss,” said Mr. Gandhi.
‘Integration is key’
Addressing a meeting in Amethi, his Lok Sabha constituency, Mr. Gandhi said while the Congress believed in integration, the BJP worked to “break the country”.
Mr. Gandhi also reached out to voters in Amethi and Rae Bareli, saying that unlike Mr. Modi, he did not lie or make false promises. Referring to the Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh announcing farm loan waivers soon after coming to power, Mr. Gandhi said the people of Amethi and Rae Bareli would also get their due.
If the Congress came back to power at the Centre, it would restore all the projects stalled and snatched from the two Congress constituencies by the BJP government, like the food park, railway line, paper mill and highways, he promised.
Published - January 25, 2019 12:17 am IST
