Lucknow/Delhi: After much speculation and talks, Congress’ star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Friday hit the campaign trail for the UP Assembly polls. It was in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareli she decided to address her first election rally with her brother and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Touted as the biggest crowd puller, Ms Gandhi launched a blistering attack on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had drawn a parallel between himself and Lord Krishna and described himself as the “adopted son” of Uttar Pradesh. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi used films like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ) and Sholay to take a jibe at the Prime Minister for failing to keep his promises of achche din.
Gandhi said; “Imagine going to watch a movie. You are shown Shah Rukh Khan’s DDLJ. After two and a half years, it turns out it is Gabbar Singh in Sholay.”
Speaking after her brother, Ms Gandhi lashed out at the Prime Minister saying; “Why does Uttar Pradesh need to adopt sons? Does the state not have its own sons? Are Rahul ji and Akhilesh ji not your sons? Uttar Pradesh is in their blood and in their heart.” Ms Gandhi then said; “In fact, every youth here is a potential leader and can work for development of UP. This is our hope for the future.” Hitting out the Prime Minister for referring to women as “mothers, wives, sisters and daughters,” Ms Gandhi asked, “Whenever he talks of women, he refers to her as someone’s wife, daughter or sister. Don’t women have an identity of their own?”
Rahul Gandhi raised the farmers’ issue to target Modi. “Over two crore farmers gave us their details about their debt burden and we went to meet Modi, to request him to waive off the loans. Our request was met with complete silence and now that elections are here, he is bargaining with the farmers of UP that if they vote BJP to power, he will waive off their loans,” Gandhi said. He pointed out that the BJP had made similar promises in Bihar, none of which have been fulfilled. Gandhi then added; “Modi ji went to Varanasi and said Ganga meri Maa. He made promises but nothing has changed in Varanasi. Then he decided that India was dirty so he gave brooms to the people and flew off to USA.”
Voter no. 141 may not keep date with Lucknow
Voter number 141 of Lucknow Central constituency is likely to again give polling a miss. The voter is none other than 92-year-old former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha five times in a row and gradually became synonymous with the City of Nawabs. “The last time Vajpayee voted was in 2004 Lok Sabha elections, which was also the last election he contested. Thereafter, he could not vote in assembly elections of 2007, 2012 and Lok Sabha elections of 2009 and 2014,” his close aide Shiv Kumar said. Vajpayee has been indisposed for some years now after suffering age-related problems and has not been seen in public. This time also he “would not be able to cast his vote in the ongoing assembly polls”, Kumar said. Polling in Lucknow is scheduled to be held on Sunday. The polling centre, where the name of the former PM is enrolled as a bonafide voter, is located in the the office of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.
