Sonia, Ajit woo UP at joint rally

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Union minister and RLD chief Ajit Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi wave to the crowd at an election rally in Aligarh

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday addressed her first rally jointly with RLD president Choudhury Ajit Singh in Aligarh.
Mr Rahul Gandhi had addressed his first joint rally with the RLD in Agra last week.
In Aligarh, Mrs Gandhi highlighted the plight of the lock industry which had once made Aligarh famous worldwide.
“The lock industry here is on the verge of closure — and so are the other industries in Uttar Pradesh. The non-Congress governments in Uttar Pradesh have sounded the death knell for industries. Infrastructure has not been developed and closure of industrial units has spelt doom for the youth who find no employment here,” she said.
She assured that if elected to power, the Congress-RLD combine would resurrect the lock industry in Aligarh and also promote industrialisation across the state.
Addressing an election rally with RLD chief Ajit Singh here, she alleged the famous lock industry of Aligarh had suffered a lot in the past two decades.
This all happened due to failure of the successive non-Congress governments to develop infrastructural facilities like roads and power in the state, the Congress president said.
She emphasised the communal harmony in this essentially Muslim populated city and said that some parties wanted to stoke communal fires to polarise votes and get political gain.
Mrs Gandhi said that the Congress was determined to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee which studied the social, economic and educational status of Muslims. She said that the basic idea behind setting up of the Sachar Committee was to understand how the community could be helped.
Mr Ajit Singh criticised UP CM Mayawati for promoting corruption in her rule. “By sacking 22 ministers, she is now trying to fool the people on the issue. If they were corrupt why did she let them continue for five years and why is she sacking them on the eve of elections?” he asked.
He said people had elected Ms Mayawati five years ago because they were fed up of “goonda raj” in SP rule. “But now they have realised that the BSP government has proved to be a miserable failure and do not want either SP or BSP to return to power.”
The BJP has been trying to communalise the atmosphere.”