‘Form next govt in UP’: Rahul Gandhi sets target for Priyanka Gandhi, Jyotiraditya Scindia

Rahul Gandhi has said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has a specific target in Uttar Pradesh and that is to form a Congress government in the state when next assembly elections happen there.

A day after announcing that he had sent Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Jyotiraditya Scindia on a mission to Uttar Pradesh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said both the leaders have been asked to work for formation of a Congress government in the state in next assembly elections.

File Photo: Congress president Rahul Gandhi speaks with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra during an election campaign rally in Rae Barelli . (AP)

“I have made Priyanka and Jyotiraditya AICC general secretaries for Uttar Pradesh. I have given them the target of forming Congress government in the state in next elections. Now, you have three soldiers working for you in the country,” said Rahul Gandhi while addressing a roadside public meeting at Salon during his visit to Amethi.

Rahul went to a temple of Lord Shiva and also visited a school before winding up his two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency. He assured the people that Priyanka would visit them soon after taking charge as general secretary. “I have asked Priyanka to come to you soon after taking charge as general secretary,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi, though, has kept the option of a wider understanding with the SP-BSP alliance open for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by speaking about cooperation with the leaders of two parties, he asserted that his party would go with full might to make a place for itself in the state.

“I respect Mulayam Singh Yadavji, Mayawatiji and Akhilesh Yadavji. But the Congress too has to make a place for itself…..In assembly elections we will form a government in the state and in the Lok Sabha we will fight with all our might. We will not take a step back,” said Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi used the occasion to list development projects including Food Park, Paper Mill and others to target the NDA government at the Centre. He said once the Congress government was installed in the state, all the work stalled by the Centre and state government in Amethi and Rae Bareli would begin again.

“Amethi will get the food park back. You will get whatever (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister) Yogi (Adityanath) have denied you,” he said. He said the Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have begun working for welfare of farmers.

Besides the loan waiver, the Congress governments would install food processing units in all the districts and the Congress would replicate the same experiment in UP too, he said.

At another roadside meeting at Parshadepur, Rahul Gandhi spoke about the problems of traders and called the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as Gabbar Singh Tax. He sharpened his attack on PM Modi over a range of issues including Rafael deal, demonetisation and removal of CBI chief Alok Verma.

He said the BJP government would be voted out in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said the PM removed the CBI chief in the middle of the night and his office was sealed amid slogans of “chowkidar chor hai”, a refrain he has used to attack Modi in the Rafale deal controversy.

“Demonetisation affected common man, farmers but loan worth Rs 3.5 lakh crore of industrialists was waived. This was your money,” he told the gathering.

“We are here to defeat the BJP. I will not give a call for BJP-Mukta Bharat (BJP-free India) as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been saying about making a Congress-free India (Congress-Mukta Bharat). We don’t speak the language of hatred. We speak with respect,” he said.