Seeking to put a lid on speculation on the Congress striking a post-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, party general secretary Rahul Gandhi asserted on Saturday that his party would have “no truck” with any party.
“We are winning the elections and I will continue to work for you till my last drop of blood and sweat. Even if you give only two or four seats to the Congress, we will not ally with thieves and goondas ,” he said at election meetings in Mehdawal area in Sant Kabirnagar and Pindra in Varanasi.
“The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh is going to be from the Congress [after the Assembly polls]... we are not going to have truck with any other party,” Mr. Gandhi said.
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His remarks came in response to the BJP's allegation that the Congress would tie up with the SP after the poll results.
“We will have no alliance with any other party after the elections... we will have an alliance with the people and your voice will reach Lucknow and your money will reach you,” Mr. Gandhi said, exuding confidence of the Congress returning to power in the State after a gap of almost 22 years.
“You believed in my grandmother... you believed in my father. Now believe in me,” the Congress general secretary said.
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He said a Congress government was needed to usher in an era of development and prosperity for the people of U.P.
Accusing political opponents of making false promises, he said that there was a kind of a race among them over it.
“They will promise you whatever you want to hear... they will also change the colour of the sky if you want to hear that,” Mr. Gandhi quipped, adding that there was, however, no truth in their promises. Had there been any truth in it, the state of affairs would not have been so bad in U.P., he said.
U.P. has a total 403 Assembly seats. The Congress has left 45 seats to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal with which it reached an alliance last year.