Rahul takes on Mayawati in her home turf on Ambedkar's B'day

Addressing a well attended meeting of party workers before flagging off 10 statewide ‘sandesh yatras’ (awareness march) to commemorate Congress' 125 years of establishment, Rahul alleged that the Mayawati government was not  interested in the development of dalits.
“The centre sends crores of rupees to UP for various welfare schemes but the money does not reach the districts and villages. “Sara paisa Lucknow tak ata hai...uske agey nahin” (the money comes at Lucknow but does not beyond it), he alleged further.

“Pata nagin paise ka kya hota hai'' (I do not know what happens to the money), he said apparently hinting at erection of statues and construction of parks and memorials by the Mayawati government.
Rahul also castigated the BSP for questionning him whenever he visits a dalit household. “People question me when I visit villages, go to dalit households...I go there as I feel that India lives there,” he said.

Referring to the irregularities in the implementation of the MNREGA, Rahul alleged that in UP the job cards for the scheme lie with the village pradhans.

“The UP governemnt says that MNREGA does not benefit the poor..it does not want health, education and development,” he added.

“If the state government claims it is working for the poor, then why is there a large scale migration from here to other states,” he asked.

Rahul stressed on a ‘new kind of politics in UP’, which he called the ‘politics of youth’. He asked the youths to come forward and change the state, which lagged behind other states in all the fields.

He also referred to the impressive performance of the congress in UP in the 2009 general elections and said that though the media had written the party off. “Everyone was surprised after the results,” he said.

Exhorting the responsive crowd to support his party, Rahul said that Congress would usher in development in the state.

Public meetings

The ‘yatras’ on specially constructed ‘raths’ would be touching various parts of the state and public meetings would be held in all the assembly constituencies during which the party leaders will be conveying to the people the programmes and policies of the Congress.

Incidently Rahul's programme on the occasion of 119th birth anniversary of dalit icon B R Ambedkar, which coincided with the BSP’s statewide agitation against the centre on Women Reservation Bill, turned into a full fledged political war between the two parties for dalit votes in the state.

The BSP also held a demonstration barely a few yeards away from the venue of Congress' programme in which many state ministers and party leaders were present.

The choice of Ambedkar Nagar for launching the ‘yatras’ is significant as it is a dalit dominated district and BSP supremo Mayawati had represented it in Lok Sabha thrice.


Rahul not allowed to garland statue

Involved in a political war of sorts with BSP supremo Mayawati over dalit votes in Uttar Pradesh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was denied permission to garland the statue of dalit icon B R Ambedkar on Wednesday in Ambedkar Nagar town, reports DHNS from Lucknow.

Rahul was there to address a party rally and flag off his party’s ten ‘statewide sandesh yatras’ on the occasion of Congress’ 125th year of establishment.

The young Congress MP had to contend with garlanding a picture of Ambedkar, which was on the dais. While the Congress claimed that the district administration had refused permission to Rahul to garland the statue, the authorities said that the BSP was also holding a demonstration in the town and that Rahul could garland the statue after the BSP programme ended. As the venue of both the programmes were barely yards away, the authorities feared that there could be a clash bewteen the workers of the two parties if both were allowed to garland the Ambedkar bust.