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Vajpayee, Sonia slug it out in Lucknow

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Wednesday said the results of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on May 11 would usher in a new chapter.

Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party election meeting at the Kapurthala crossing here , Mr. Vajpayee said the people wanted change and this was possible only if they voted for the BJP. Mr. Vajpayee, the Lucknow MP, said one thing had become clear, which was that the people's attention was being focussed on burning issues.

Taking a dig at the Samajwadi Party Government, he said even the opponents of the BJP had accepted that only road building was not sufficient for development.

Deliberate misconception

Mr. Vajpayee rejected reports that he was opposed to Kalyan Singh being projected as the shadow Chief Minister. He said it was reported that he had refused to campaign for the party as he was angry with Mr. Singh, and added that the misconception had been deliberately created. Mr. Singh was an old colleague, they had worked together and would continue working together in the party.

He said Lucknow was his city and he felt happy whenever he came here. Exhorting the people to support the BJP candidates in the elections in Lucknow which were due on April 28, Mr.Vajpayee announced that he would cast his vote here.

Best guarantee: Sonia

United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi said here that a strong Congress at the Centre and in U.P. was the best guarantee for the State returning on the path of development.

Addressing a Congress election rally at the Jyotiba Phule Park in Old Lucknow on Wednesday, she said the Centre had given crores to the U.P. Government for development, but the money had not been properly utilised.

Ms. Gandhi accused the Samajwadi Party Government of ignoring Central schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme ( NREGP) and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. She said people had been subjected to gross injustice and corruption had increased.

Ms. Gandhi said only people close to the ruling establishment in U.P. had prospered from the development initiatives.

She asserted that while one party was trying to divide people by causing communal tension in the name of religion, the other party was exploiting the sentiments of the poor people. The rule of the non-Congress parties in the last 18 years had completely ruined the State as their policies and programmes lacked vision. Ms. Gandhi cautioned the people that instead of reposing their faith in these parties they should vote the Congress back to power in the ongoing Assembly elections.

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