Sunday Interview: People have had enough of the BSP and SP... they want change'

The battle for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections has begun. In the gruelling heat and dust of the election campaign, new UP Congress chief Raj Babbar speaks to Ashhar Khan from Balrampur during his yatra about his ideas, challenges and how to revive a number four party in Uttar Pradesh.

Will the Congress be launching Priyanka Gandhi in the Uttar Pradesh campaign?

What is new in this? Whenever there has been any need for the party or for the country the Gandhi-Nehru family has always stood up and volunteered. This family has even laid down their lives for the nation. Priyanka has been campaigning in the constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli. So we want her to campaign in the entire state; we have also given plans. She is not averse to the idea and it is under consideration. I am hopeful that she will be amidst us soon. Let them decide on the issue.

You head the state Congress and Prashant Kishor and his team are doing parallel work. Is there an issue?

Well Prashant has a different mandate and we have a different mandate. His mandate is management and efficient ideas. He is implementing the content given by the Congress and is doing a very good job. In the present-day scenario, things have changed, election management and the way it is conducted is different, so he is doing it. Our job is politics and we are doing that. So there are no differences at all. All of us are doing our own work.

Who according to you is a bigger threat — the Samajwadi Party state government or the BJP-led Central government?

Is there a difference between the two? Just think and go back to Muzaffarnagar or Kairana. You will know what I am talking about. Anyway, let’s not get into these issues. Let me make it amply clear for you that this time in the elections, the SP has promised mobile phones to all. So Akhilesh is giving out mobile phones while Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving out SIM cards. So actually both these parties are one; they have proved this time and again.

What has been the response to your campaign?

As we speak there are three yatras criss-crossing the state of Uttar Pradesh. We first started our joint yatra from Delhi. In this yatra, all of us were there and it was flagged off by the Congress president and vice-president. After that Sheila Dikshit and Sanjay Singh are on one yatra while Pramod Tewari and me are on the other. Rahulji is in the second phase of his yatra. The response has been overwhelming. This time people are looking for change. They have had enough of this cyclic motion between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the SP. They are looking at the Congress and let me tell you we are not going to disappoint them this time.

There has been a lot of criticism that people went away with khats during Mr Gandhi’s “khat sabha”?

There is no need to deprive the needy of cots (laughs). I feel this is a non-issue that is being highlighted. We were there to listen to the issues of farmers. There is a major agrarian crisis brewing in the country, specially in Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Modi is ignorant of these facts as he is busy travelling. When was the last time he visited farmers who are in distress? Mr Gandhi has travelled the length and breadth of this country meeting farmers and trying to resolve their issues. In fact, I will take it a step further wherever there has been injustice with the weak, Mr Gandhi is always present.

Why should the people vote for you? You have the same old names on your cards. What’s new?

You can see for yourself the condition of Uttar Pradesh in the last 27 years. The name of our campaign is self-explanatory — “27 saal UP behaal”. It has been 27 years since there was a Congress government in the state and look what has happened. We have given forms to farmers asking them to tell us their outstanding loans. The amount spent on electricity. We are giving them counterfoils of those forms. This means it is a solemn promise that if Congress comes to power we will waive off farmer loans. Let me tell you that this is not a jumla as is spoken by the BJP and their leader. We have done this in 2008 by waiving off loans of farmers. So unlike the BJP, we stand by our promises.

The BJP has more than 70 MPs from UP, including the PM. Where do you stand a chance?

That is exactly the reason why we will be voted to power. What have these MPs done for Uttar Pradesh? Just look at the condition of roads. It was even more shocking that Mr Modi, in his Independence Day speech, referred to a village being electrified in Uttar Pradesh. We all know what happened after that. The fact is that the BJP at the Centre and the SP at the state level in collusion have let down the people.

Your appointment as Uttar Pradesh Congress chief upset many. Within the Congress, people say that you are an outsider.

I am a loyal soldier of the party. In the 2009 byelections I defeated Dimple Yadav from Firozabad. I have served in each and every capacity which my leadership gave me. In the current position also I am only carrying out the wishes of my leaders. Nobody is upset at all in the party or the state unit. Please visit and see our yatras on how the Congress, old and new, is coming together to uproot the current state government of UP.