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Declare higher quota, Rahul dares Mulayam
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the Samajwadi Party, accusing its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of misguiding people on the minority reservation issue as well as on the Congress’s proposed food security scheme. Manish Chandra Pandey reports.
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the Samajwadi Party, accusing its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of misguiding people on the minority reservation issue as well as on the Congress’s proposed food security scheme.
The scheme is based on the premise that no Indian, specially the rural poor, would go to bed hungry.
The Congress has been out of power in UP since 1989.
Undeterred by men showing him black banners and shouting vande mataram, Gandhi, addressing a public meeting in the reserved constituency of Orai in Jalaun district of Bundelkhand, slammed the SP chief for what he claimed “trying to cheat the people by seeking to claim the food security scheme as his own”.
He also attacked the BSP, eliciting applause when he made his oft-repeated remark “UP ka jadui haathi paisa khata hai” (the magical elephant in UP, the BSP’s election symbol, eats up money), and targeted the BJP too.
Gandhi dared Mulayam Singh Yadav to declare in his party’s manifesto if the SP came to power in UP, it would provide minority reservation higher than the one provided by the Congress.
Just before the declaration of the UP polls, the Congress had declared 4.5% minority reservation, an initiative dismissed by the SP chief as “not being enough”.
Gandhi narrated a series of initiatives the Congress government at the Centre had taken for minority welfare. He also played the ‘Bundelkhand pride’ factor, urging the youth who migrate to other states to earn a living to return and serve their state.
"Rahulji wants us to believe the Congress is going to get an absolute majority and that’s why doesn’t want to entertain any thoughts or talks of a post-poll alliance with the SP or anyone else," a Congress leader said.
