LUCKNOW: United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has said that a strong Congress at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh was the best guarantee for the State returning on the path of development.

Addressing an election rally at the Jyotiba Phule Park, she said the Centre gave crores of rupees to the State Government for the implementation of development schemes but the money was not properly utilised. The Samajwadi Party Government was ignoring Central schemes such as the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan.

People had been subjected to gross injustice and corruption and lawlessness had increased. Only those close to the ruling establishment prospered from the development initiatives. While one party (the BJP) was trying to divide the people by causing communal tension in the name of religion, another (the BSP) was exploiting the sentiments of the poor.

The rule of the non-Congress parties during the last 17-18 years had completely ruined the State as their policies and programmes lacked vision. The State had become associated with mal administration and bad governance. Cautioning the people against reposing their faith in these parties, Ms. Gandhi said they should vote the Congress back to power in the elections.

Turning her attention to Lucknow, she said only the VIP roads had been re-laid while those in the other parts of the city had been ignored. Power and water crises baulked the people, while the land mafia illegally acquired government land.

Earlier, Ms. Gandhi addressed poll meetings in Unnao and Rae Bareli.

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