Changing gear after the completion of polling in Punjab, the Congress on Monday said that its campaign theme in UP will revolve around the 22 years of combined misrule of BSP, SP and BJP in the state. Claiming that the Congress’ fight is not limited only to oust the ruling BSP, senior party leader Mohan Prakash said, “Our aim is to get Uttar Pradesh rid of bad work culture, which has been collectively established during the respective tenures of the three parties in the state. People of the state have been suffering for the last 22 years. They have now realised that they deserve better and see hope in the Congress.”
Mr Prakash also said “surge for the Congress in the state has unnerved” all the three parties and so all of them are targeting only “Rahulji”. Sources in the Congress said shifting focus of the campaign theme in UP is a calculated move by the party to ensure that “sectional issues like minority quota” do not derail the “good governance” plank of the party. “The main issue on which the party has been harping on is the misgovernance of the BSP, SP and BJP during their respective tenures in the last 22 years,” they said. “We have a long-term vision of 2020 and a manifesto containing priority issues for five years to implement. Our opponents have nothing to match us, as people of the state had given them opportunities, but they failed to deliver,” Mr Prakash said.
The Congress leader, while highlighting the ongoing fight between the IAS and the IPS officers in the state, said, “It is just the result of the work culture established in the last two decades of rule by our opponents.”
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Congress set to unveil u.p. poll manifesto today
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, Jan. 30
The Congress is all set to unveil its UP election manifesto from 10 places on Tuesday and Mr Sam Pitroda, who pioneered the telecom revolution in the country, will release it for the party in Lucknow along with IT and telecom minister Kapil Sibal.
Revealing this, senior Congress leader Mohan Prakash said, “The party manifesto will be released jointly by Central and state leaders simultaneously from 10 places in UP. This has been done with an aim to reach out to as many people as possible.”
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh along with his deputy Pradeep Jain, who is also the local MP, will be in Jhansi. AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh with PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi will be in Allahabad and former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh will be in Saharanpur, which has a sizeable Sikh population. Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, along with coal minister Sriprakish Jaiswal, will release the manifesto in Kanpur and health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will go to Bareilly.