Heavy turnout signals a change, says Rahul Gandhi
Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the heavy voter turnout in the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh is an indication that the state is ‘ready for change’.
Addressing an election meeting in UP’s tribal dominated Mirzapur district, about 300 km from here, Rahul said that whenever the poll turnout crossed 60 per cent, it indicated a change.
In an apparent bid to woo the tribals, the Congress leader referred to the Bill brought by his government for the benefit of the tribals in Kerala, Maharashtra and some other states. “In UP, the tribals are not getting the benefits because here the government does not think about tribals, common man and the poor,” he said.
Exhorting the people to change the state, Rahul said that successive non-Congress regimes in UP had done nothing for the state during the past 22 years. He referred to the ‘plight of the women’, the drought in Bundelkhand to buttress his contention.
Rahul also referred to the acquisition of lands of the farmers and said that there were atrocities on them when they protested but neither Mulayam Singh Yadav nor Mayawati bothered to visit them.
He lamented that the people in UP had not received the benefit of the MNREGS rural job guarantee scheme as the people in the Congress ruled states have. “This is because you do not have your own government here - a Congress government”, he said.
