Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The Congress on Saturday claimed that it was a party with a "difference," different from the Samajwadi Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party under whose rule over 17 years, it said, Uttar Pradesh became synonymous with "misrule".

Manifesto

Releasing the Assembly election manifesto here, All-India Congress Committee general secretary and in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Ashok Gehlot said the party would strive for a change. During the period of non-Congress rule, the State had come to be associated with criminalisation of politics, corruption, unemployment, hunger and want, and absence of development.

The 32-page document promises agricultural development; welfare of Dalits, Other Backward Classes and minorities; jobs for unemployed youth; women's welfare; a special package for victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots; rule of law, and police and administrative reforms.

Focus on Centre's schemes

Pradesh Congress Committee president Salman Khurshid, who was present at the press conference, said the campaign would focus on the Centre's flagship schemes including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the Education-for-All Programme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification Programme.

The party would try to convince the voters that they could reap benefits only if there was coordination between the Congress and the Government of India.

Hung assembly

Predicting a hung Assembly after the elections, he, however, emphasised that the party would ensure that it had a say in government formation.

On the quota for OBCs in higher education institutions, Mr. Khurshid said the Congress favoured a larger debate in the country. He was for an all-party consensus.

The manifesto was simultaneously released from seven cities, the others being Jhansi, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur.

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