The battle for Uttar Pradesh has begun.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed her first election meeting in Gonda on Wednesday and blamed the non-Congress parties for destroying Uttar Pradesh in the past 22 years.
UP chief minister Mayawati also launched her election campaign from Sitapur, and happily took credit for all that was good in her government and conveniently blamed the UPA at the Centre for everything that went wrong.
While Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s speech was comparatively temperate, Ms Mayawati repeatedly attacked the Congress — in fact, more so than the Samajwadi Party, which is her main adversary in UP.
Mrs Gandhi, in her address, said the Centre had sent `1 lakh crore to the state, but the benefits never reached the poor.
Ms Mayawati, on the other hand, blamed the Centre for not granting her request for a `80,000-crore financial package, thereby delaying the development of UP.
Ms Mayawati accused the Congress of having an “anti-dalit mentality” and retarding the development process in UP due to political and casteist reasons, while the Congress chief accused the non-Congress parties of being anti-poor.
Mrs Gandhi said the BSP government had forcibly taken away land from farmers, but Ms Mayawati said she had to rely on the private sector to develop the state.
The Congress president said the removal of 21 ministers of the Mayawati government on the eve of elections indicated the extent of corruption in the state. Ms Mayawati, on the other hand, said she had thrown out all those who tried to malign the image of her party and government and did not conform to the ideology of the BSP.
Mrs Gandhi said the Congress’ policies were “inclusive”, and did not cater to only one section of society. Ms Mayawati insisted the BSP too was a broad- based party working on the concept of “Sarvjan”. She said her government had taken several steps to ensure the welfare of upper castes, besides giving due respect to dalit icons by building parks and memorials in their memory.
The chief minister warned if the Samajwadi Party came to power in UP, goons would rule the state and women would no longer be safe. If the Congress won, she added, poverty would return to haunt people as it had in the 40 years the Congress had ruled the state.