lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 29, 2019 16:39 IST

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that the government led by him has “taken away employment” and tried to mask its failure with massive publicity.

At a public rally in Ayodhya, Priyanka Gandhi said the Congress’s promise of providing Rs 72,000 cash support to the poor “is not a jumla”.

She said, “The Congress has promised NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) scheme under which every family will get Rs 72,000…No poor family would get less than Rs 72,000. When this announcement was made, the BJP government said it’s an election jumla.”

“They had promised to give Rs 15 lakh to every poor. They later called it a jumla,” the Congress leader said.

Priyanka Gandhi, who was on a day-long visit in Ayodhya, said, “The NDA government’s focus is on making the rich, richer. It has money for businessmen, not the poor. The government wants to wind up MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) scheme. It has deliberately not paid workers for six months.”

She said that the Congress’s idea behind MNREGA was that “every family would get at least 100 days of employment.” This government wants to take away that opportunity of employment from the people, the Congress general secretary said.

The Congress leader accused PM Modi of ignoring “the interests of the farmers, the poor and also his own constituency.” Priyanka Gandhi said PM Modi has travelled all parts of the world but “found no time to visit a single village in Varanasi or meet a single family in his constituency.”

“Think who you voted for (in 2014), think will you trust them again,” Priyanka Gandhi told the rally in Ayodhya.

This was the first public rally of Priyanka Gandhi in Ayodhya after being appointed the party general secretary in January and made in-charge of Uttar Pradesh East, a politically significant region of the state. This region has the constituencies of PM Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Ayodhya has been central to BJP’s politics on account of its long campaign for a Ram temple at the Janmabhoomi. The BJP holds the Lok Sabha seat of Faizabad. Ayodhya is part of Faizabad parliamentary constituency.

Priyanka Gandhi’s Ayodhya visit is also significant in the view that five Lok Sabha constituency was with the Congress in 2009 general election that it lost to the BJP in 2014. The Congress had won Faizabad, Gonda, Bahraich, Barabanki and Sultanpur seats in 2009.

The Congress is hopeful of doing well in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls at these five seats. At Faizabad, the Congress has fielded Nirmal Khatri, who had won the seat in 2009 but lost in 2014. Similarly, the Sanjay Singh had won Sultanpur seat for the Congress in 2009 but lost it to BJP’s Varun Gandhi in 2014.

At Barabanki, the Congress has fielded senior Congress leader PL Punia’s son Tanuj Punia. In 2009 polls, PL Punia had won the seat but lost it in 2014.

The sitting MP of Baharaich, Savitri Bai Phule had won the Lok Sabha seat by defeating Congress candidate in 2014. She has quit the BJP and is in the fray at Bahraich seat as a Congress candidate.

Gonda Lok Sabha constituency is among the seven seats that the Congress has “left” for the grand-alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh.