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Uttar Pradesh polls: Priyanka to decide whether she will be CM candidate or not says Khurshid
Former Union minister Salman Khurshid said Congress would be contesting UP polls on the needs and aspirations of the people
Former Union minister Salman Khurshid on Saturday said the Congress would contest the UP assembly polls under party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s leadership and she herself would decide on the issue of whether she would be party’s chief ministerial candidate or not.
Khurshid, who is senior member of Congress party’s manifesto drafting panel, was in Sangam city leading a delegation of Congress leaders with an aim to interact with people as well as leaders of his party’s frontal organisations before the party prepares and releases the manifesto for the UP assembly elections-2022.
All Indian Congress Committee national secretary Bajirao Khande, Congress working committee member Pramod Tiwari and former MLA Anugrah Narayan Singh, among others, are also in the delegation.
Addressing media persons at a guest house in Kalyani Devi locality, Khurshid said Congress would be writing a new chapter of success in the UP polls in 2022 and would win more seats than expected.
Coming down hard on the BJP-led state and Central governments, Khurshid said the people were being cheated.
“Unemployment is rising and atrocities against women are being committed with impunity in the state,” he said.
He also said the Congress would be contesting UP polls on the needs and aspirations of the people.
Khurshid said interaction with people of various sections of the society had not only helped him understand the expectations and pain of the people but also made it clear that the common man was angry with the ruling BJP.
On various political parties trying to woo members of certain castes in the run up to the polls, Khurshid said Congress did not believe in such caste and religion-based politics and instead was trying to visit slums, interact with poor and farmers to better understand their problems so that their aspirations and expectations can find a place in the Congress manifesto.
Earlier, Khurshid arrived at the Bamrauli airport at 11.30am and directly went to the slum near Bakshi Bandh in Daraganj. Here, he and other senior Congress leaders interacted with the residents.
He also led the interaction with farmers, traders, women and students during his stay at Kalyani Devi.
Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said it was Congress that had actually worked for Dalits and the downtrodden.
“The middle class and the poor are suffering today even as the ruling BJP has no answers to rising costs and people’s sufferings,” he alleged.
PHOTO CAPTION: Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid addressing media persons on Saturday. (HT)
