Rahul promises to work for UP post polls

Rahul Gandhi on Thursday promised to return after the elections and work for the development of the state even if the Congress doesn't win the elections, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: May 3, 2007, 19:15:10 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, Ballia

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With just a week left for the poll results, Congress youth leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday promised to return after the elections and work for the development of the state, irrespective of which party forms the government in the state.

In a short and a crisp speech, Gandhi blamed the caste politics played by different political parties for the backwardness of the state. "Other states are moving forward and UP is moving back and it is only because of the caste politics here," he said, while exhorting the youth to end the malaise and start a new chapter for the future of the state.

Clearly aiming younger voters, he said, "sixty per cent of UP's population comprises youth. And, if you think differently and work with vigour UP can change." He also made a promise that he will work with them after the elections to take 'UP to the place it deserves'. Gandhi identified lack of employment avenues as the prime reason for state's backwardness forcing youth to look for work in other states. "People from UP are contributing in the development of other states but in UP there are no jobs for them," he said.

A wait for over three hours for a huge gathering from rural Ballia did not dampen their spirit to have a glimpse of hope for the Congress in UP --- Rahul Gandhi, who accused the state governments of siphoning off huge amount of money that the state gets from the Central government for the development works. "The Prime Minister gives 50 per cent of the funds for UP. But all the money vanished in Lucknow and nothing reaches the people," he said.

He urged the people to believe that the money allocated is theirs and not that of the government in Delhi or Lucknow and wanted them to question the governments about utilization of public funds. "You know the condition of roads and schools. Things will change only if you assert yourself," he advised.

Earlier, State Congress President Salman Khurshid termed Rahul Gandhi, a youth with fire, to change the fortune of UP. He also recalled the rebellion of Mangal Pandey and Chittu Pandey and sought similar action against the present government when they go to vote.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Thursday accused the Central government of denying sufficient funds for the state, a cause of slow progress. He also claimed that his party was coming back to power and accused his opponents ---BSP, BJP and the Congress --- of spreading wrong information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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