Taking a swipe at Priyanka Gandhi’s political interventions, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya said it was only social media which was projecting the Congress leader as a “prominent national leader”.
“I do not take her seriously.... We have already named her ‘Priyanka Twitter Vadra’. She only tweets for 2-3 days and the media remains busy and social media shows her as a prominent national leader,” Maurya was quoted as saying by PTI.
In the recent past the Congress leader, through her Twitter posts, has shone a light on the death of a farmer in Muzaffarnagar, the closing of a cycle factory in Ghaziabad, teachers’ appointment issue, among others.
Stressing his point further, the deputy CM spotlighted that even though the Congress general secretary campaigned for her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, she could not ensure his victory. Rahul Gandhi lost the family bastion of Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani, who is now a union minister.
“...But everyone knows when she came to Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections hoping that she would make her brother the prime minister, she could not even ensure his victory,” he told PTI.
{{/usCountry}}“...But everyone knows when she came to Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections hoping that she would make her brother the prime minister, she could not even ensure his victory,” he told PTI.
{{/usCountry}}The Congress’ UP spokesperson advised the deputy CM, who also doubles up as a minister, to appraise the works done by his ministry.
“The Gandhi family has sacrificed its members for the nation. Before making such remarks, he should get the potholed roads in the entire state repaired as he is in charge of the Public Works Department,” Ashok Singh, spokesperson of UP Congress, told PTI.
Priyanka Gandhi had offered to run 1,000 buses to send migrants workers from UP home and had sought the state government’s permission for the same. The government accepted the proposal but then charged the Congress of not being serious about the issue. The Adityanath government accused the party of “forgery” and said the list of buses contained registration numbers of two-wheelers, cars and three-wheelers.
The deputy chief minister said Priyanka Gandhi has been critical of policies of the Yogi Adityanath dispensation only because she looks at the BJP-ruled state “from a negative point of view”.
Referring to her tweet on migrant labourers, Maurya told PTI, “Congress does not want to see (what is happening in) Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is suffering from ‘drishti dosh’ (vision disorder). Congress leaders, be it Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra or any other, should get their eyes tested properly.”
Yesterday, speaking to HT, chief minister Yogi Adityanath called the Congress offer to ferry migrants home as “bhadda mazak (ugly joke)”.
Priyanka Gandhi, time and again, has been highlighting the issues confronting the state.