Congress has no pact with BSP: Rahul Gandhi (Lead, Changing dateline)

MIRZAPUR - Ruling out any truck with the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday urged the youth of Uttar Pradesh to help the Congress to oust the BSP and “revive the old lost glory” of the state.

“We will overthrow the BSP from this state,” Gandhi declared at a large public rally, where crowds waited for him for hours, braving the scorching 44 degrees Celsius heat.

The Amethi MP drew much applause for his personal touch when he accepted a locally woven straw hat from a young tribal from the region and also by accepting the tribal’s offer to shoot an arrow from his bow.

Dispelling doubts created on account of the BSP’s support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during the cut motion in parliament last month, Gandhi said: “Neither did the Congress have any understanding with the BSP nor is there any question of having any kind of pact with them.”

He urged the youth to strengthen the hands of the Congress to oust the BSP from Uttar Pradesh.

When the crowds applauded him, he said, “I can see that the youth in Uttar Pradesh are looking for a positive change. I am confident the strength of the youth alone will bring about that change to revive the lost old glory of this state.”

In a bid to focus on the significance of Uttar Pradesh as the country’s most populous state, he said: “Remember, if you can change U.P., then you can rest assured you have the capability to change the entire country.”

He went on: “After all it is the 18 crore people of this state who contribute significantly to the development of other states, including Delhi and Maharashtra, though they were ill-treated by some sections.”

Enthused by the crowd response, Gandhi impressed upon the need to revive the Congress in the state.

“You have seen different shades of politics in this state over the past two decades when the Congress was out of power. There was the Samajwadi Party which played the politics of caste, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party which thrived for sometime in the name of religion. Now it is the BSP which managed to ride to power by playing the Dalit card,” he said.

Training his guns on Chief Minister Mayawati, Gandhi accused her of indulging in much “lip service without doing anything concrete for the uplift and growth of the downtrodden Dalits”.

“Every time I go into the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh and ask poor Dalits what Mayawati was doing for them, pat would come the reply that they were neither aware of the government’s programmes nor had they tasted the fruits of development.”

Attacking successive governments for having sent Uttar Pradesh into decline on all counts, Gandhi sought to point out how the state had failed to register even minimum industrial growth in recent decades.

Assuring people that he would put all his energies behind his mission to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi asserted: “I am with you and will remain with you to fight this battle together, so that we can ensure complete transformation of this state for ever.”