The recently appointed Congress in-charge of Uttarakhand Rajeev Shukla has expressed confidence about the chances of the party winning all five Parliamentary seats in Uttarakhand in the lok Sabha election 2014, stating that there is no wave in support of the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Stating that the party will contest the election on the basis of development works facilitated by the Congress-led State Government and Central Government, Shukla questioned the right of the BJP to raise price rise as an election issue stating that this problem had not been resolved in BJP-ruled States. He said this while addressing the media in the presence of party candidates Harak Singh Rawat from Garhwal, Saket Bahuguna from Tehri, ex-CM and former Tehri MP Vijay Bahuguna, State co- in charge lal Singh and other Congress leaders in Dehradun.
Shukla said, “Considering the public response we are receiving, I am sure that we will win the five parliamentary seats in Uttarakhand. We are contesting this election on the basis of the development facilitated by the Congress-led State and central governments. The UPA Government has launched various public welfare schemes in the past 10 years outperforming the NDA Government. We got the lokpal and RTI enacted and the Congress-led State Government in Uttarakhand was among the first in the country to enact lokayukta on the lines of the bill passed in the Parliament. However, there is no such provision in Gujarat where the lokayukta appointed by the State is a person close to its CM Narendra Modi. Uttarakhand has a considerable population of ex-servicemen and approving the long-pending demand of the ex-servicemen for one rank, one pension is a major achievement of the Congress,” he said.
Replying to a question on price rise, Shukla said that the Central Government had taken all possible measures to control the rise, but the prices of crude oil had also remained high in the past 10 years, which had contributed to the price rise. “During the past 10 years, the price of a barrel of crude oil has been between $ 105-130 while the edible oil we have to import is also costly. However, it is wrong for Modi to talk on price rise because Gujarat charges 25 to 30 per cent sales tax on petrol and other fuels,” he said, while adding that he himself had not witnessed the Modi effect during his public interactions in Uttarakhand.
However, Shukla himself appeared to be cornered when asked about the reason for Vijay Bahuguna being replaced on the post of chief minister. Shukla first said that the decision had been taken by the party high command, but on being asked whether there was internal democracy in the Congress, he said that Bahuguna had himself resigned to focus on other work. Resuming his attack on
Modi, Shukla said that he would not like to make personal comments on anyone when asked about Modi revealing about his wife now, but added that the Congress believes in honouring women.