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Thursday, Apr 22, 2004

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National

BJP has neglected have-nots: Sonia

By Anita Joshua

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, at a public meeting at Bachrawan in Rae Bareli on Wednesday. - Photo: Subir Roy

RAE BARELI (U.P.), APRIL 21. It is now official. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's son and candidate for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat, Rahul Gandhi, will campaign in nine of the 32 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh which go to the polls on April 26.

The announcement came ahead of the arrival of the mother-son duo in Lucknow today to campaign in their respective constituencies.According to the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr. Gandhi will campaign in Gorakhpur, Domariaganj, Maharajganj, Padrauna, Ghosi, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh and Sultanpur over the next two days before returning to Amethi on Friday evening for some eleventh hour campaigning.

Mr. Gandhi's whistlestop tour of Eastern Uttar Pradesh will see him campaign for some prominent Congress leaders, including the UPCC president, Jagdambika Pal, in Domariaganj; the AICC secretary, R.P.N. Singh, in Padrauna; Sudha Rai, widow of Congress leader Kalpnath Rai, in Ghosi; Ratna Singh in Pratapgarh and family loyalist Satish Sharma in Sultanpur.

Though there was no word on whether Priyanka Vadra would follow suit, Ms. Gandhi did not rule out the possibility in a fleeting interaction with the media while touring Rae Bareli, her constituency, during which she sought to rekindle her family's ties with the constituency which date back to the first Lok Sabha election in 1952 when her father-in-law, Feroze Gandhi, represented the seat.

Seeking a decisive victory that would send across a message to the entire country, Ms. Gandhi lamented that some parties "which claimed to be secular were helping communal forces." "Our founding fathers sacrificed a lot for the freedom of the country without even knowing whether they would see an independent India, let alone rule it. Even after Independence, they gave the supreme sacrifice for the country. Can other parties claim such a legacy," she asked.

Ms. Gandhi attacked the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance for weakening the very foundation of the country and its institutions, besides "neglecting the have-nots."

She assured the people that she would nurse the constituency in the same way that Amethi had been looked after over the past two decades. Like her mother-in-law and former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who was sent to the Lok Sabha thrice from here, Ms. Gandhi ended her speeches uttering `Jai Hind' thrice.

UNI reports:

Kicking off her election campaign in Rae Bareli at Bachrawan, Ms. Gandhi slammed the BJP for "befooling" the people during the previous Lok Sabha elections. A party which could not fulfil its promises, should not return to power, she said.

"Woh bar-bar logon ki aanhkon mein dhool nahin jhonk sakte (they cannot fool people everytime),'' Ms. Gandhi said and appealed to the people to vote en masse for her party.

Ms Gandhi, in her 10-minute address, blamed the BJP for destroying old principles and values. ``In democracies, parties gain and lose power. But what to do with people for whom power is everything and they want to retain it at all costs to further their vested interests,'' she asked.

Accusing the BJP of selling public sector undertakings, she said the future of the employees was at stake. "Today, the farmers and housewives are finding it increasingly difficult to run their households."

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