Uttar Pradesh 'will be back on track if Congress is elected'

Lucknow: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi yesterday said he was "ready to give in writing" that Uttar Pradesh would be "back on the development track within five years" and undergo a "makeover" in ten years if his party comes to power.

"Uttar Pradesh has shown the way to the entire country, but your government has failed to even provide you with good roads, employment, drinking water, electricity and other amenities," Gandhi told a public gathering in Maharajganj district on the last day of his mass contact programme.

"For the last 20 years, the state has been getting only a government that works on caste and religion basis," he said.

"Within five years, the country's backbone, Uttar Pradesh, would be brought back on the development track. And in ten years, it would undergo such a makeover that the people of the state would themselves not recognise the state."

"I can give this in writing... If you want, I am even ready to sign [my statement],' added the Gandhi scion, accusing the Mayawati government of ignoring development and misusing the central government's funds meant for the poor and underprivileged.

The Congress MP had on Tuesday embarked on a five-day mass contact programme ahead of the state assembly polls next year.

"Due to their bitter experiences in the last 20 years, it appears the people in Uttar Pradesh have lost hope and think they would get a similar non-serious government this time also," Gandhi said.

‘Government for all'

"But I have not lost hope. Don't forget the contribution of Uttar Pradesh's people… I believe this time the state would get a ‘government for all' in the form of the Congress. We would together transform the state," he added.

Terming the Mayawati government ‘anti-farmer', the Congress leader said: "The stocks of fertiliser meant for the farmers of the state are being sold in black markets. The farmers are not being given urea and fertilisers. The stock is going to Nepal."

"We [central government] are sending adequate stocks [of fertiliser] but the officials are making money from them… Why can't Mayawati see all this? Probably because she doesn't interact with the farmers and blindly believes her officials," added Gandhi.