Rahul Gandhi kickstarts Congress’s 2014 campaign in UP

mangaloretoday.com

Aligarh, Oct 9: In Uttar Pradesh today, Rahul Gandhi attacked the state government headed by 40-year-old Akhilesh Yadav, and spoke for the first time about last month’s deadly communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar, in which nearly 50 people were killed.

Mr Gandhi said that those riots were instigated by political parties, but did not name either the BJP or the ruling Samajwadi Party, who have both blamed each other for the worst riots in the state in over a decade.

"Hindus and Muslims both died. I met both sides. They said ’There isn’t any enmity between us. Politicians have instigated this’," he said, adding "Some politicians know if they don’t create enmity, then they can’t win."

 

The Congress vice-president said that Mr Yadav’s Samajwadi Party proved it does not stand for the aam admi or common man because it opposed a landmark new welfare scheme that guarantees cheap food to nearly 70% of India. 

The Samajwadi Party returned fire, targeting the Congress for allegedly endemic corruption.  "Rahul Gandhi has said his party wants Indians to eat a full meal.  What he means is we will eat all the resources," said the party’s Narendra Agarwal. 

Mr Yadav’s father, Mulayam Singh Yadav, heads the Samajwadi Party, which provides crucial external support to the Prime Minister’s minority government.

In the UP election two years ago, Mr Gandhi and Mr Yadav were projected as the new face of their parties, but it was the latter who swept to power winning much support for his youth-centric schemes like free laptops for students.

Mr Gandhi faces a considerable challenge in Uttar Pradesh, where his party is looking to him for a reversal of fortune.  Of the state’s 80 parliamentary seats, the Congress currently holds just 22.

In the last state elections, the Congress lost eight of the ten assembly seats in Rae Bareli and Amethi, the parliamentary constituencies represented by Mr Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is the Congress president.