UP polls: Priyanka targets Modi, Adityanath in Raebareli

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of spending funds on advertisements instead of using them to empower people.

Gandhi arrived in Raebareli on Saturday on a two-day visit to campaign for Congress candidates. Raebareli is the parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Priyanka Gandhi will be holding a series of ‘nukkad sabhas’ and meetings in all assembly constituencies of Raebareli, where elections will be held in the fourth phase on February 23.

Addressing a ‘nukkad sabha’ in the Harchandpur assembly constituency, she said under the Congress governments at the Centre, there was all-round development in people’s lives but now, small businesses have closed down.

On the problem of stray cattle in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi said in Chhattisgarh, the Congress government buys cow dung at Rs 2 per kilogram from people who keep stray cattle.

”The job of the government is to develop you and we are seeing that the government in Uttar Pradesh is not doing what it should do. It is the government’s job to make you stand on your feet, but big advertisements are being seen everywhere – Modiji’s and Yogiji’s advertisements worth thousands of crores of rupees. If the same money would have been invested to empower you, think about how much progress could have been made,” she said.

Interacting with media persons in the Johwa Sharki area, the Congress leader said, ”Raebareli has been completely rejected under the BJP government. All the projects that were started by us have been closed down.” ”Inflation and farmers’ problems have increased manifold. Ask anyone here, shopkeepers, farmers or any youth, if their lives have improved in the past five years, and I can bet no one here will say it has,” she said in reply to a question.

Referring to the pandemic, Gandhi said, ”There were no facilities for coronavirus patients. My mother (Sonia Gandhi) had asked to send medical oxygen to Rae Bareli from somewhere and we talked to the Chhattisgarh government and they were sending oxygen, but the government here refused.” ”They did not want oxygen to come to you through the Congress government, this is not the work of a government, this is politics,” she said, and appealed to people to vote in favour of Congress candidate.

The Harchandpur and the Raebareli seats were won by Congress candidates Rakesh Singh and Aditi Singh respectively in the 2017 assembly elections, but both have now joined the BJP.

Gandhi also targeted Harchandpur MLA Rakesh Singh and accused him of grabbing land.