The All India Congress Committee general secretary and former Chief Minister Harish Rawat has claimed that Uttar Pradesh would prove to be the game changer for Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Responding to a question on Congress being left out of the alliance between SP and BSP in UP, the senior Congress leader said on the sidelines of the khichadi mushroom party he hosted on the day that the election results would put the Congress in the position attained by it in 2009 when it had won 23 seats in UP and formed the Government for the second consecutive term at the Centre. “Time is still left for the election and I am sure that the people of UP would prefer Congress to the alliance and BJP,” he said.
Rawat, however, evaded a question asked about the parliamentary seat he would contest and said that it was for the Congress president to decide. But he said in the same breath that he has been touring the State in his endeavour to expand the social base of the party.
Taking strong exception to the recent statement of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, equating the Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bhim Rao Ambedkar for providing 10 percent reservation to the poor of upper castes, Rawat said that there could not be two Ambedkars. “Ambedkar worked selflessly for the uplift of the backwards and Modi is out and out a politician,” he said. Rawat reminded that the Congress had attempted to give reservation to the upper caste poor way back in 1992. “But the move was scuttled in the court,” he said. “We supported the Bill in the parliament even though we know that it is another Jumla by Modi,” he added.
“PM should explain to the unemployed why over 25 lakh posts in the Government have been scrapped by the Centre and why 24 lakh posts are still lying vacant. Similarly about 3 crore posts are lying vacant in different States,’’ Rawat said.
The Congress veteran tore into the BJP Government for not doing anything on Gairsain. He also slammed the BJP Government for not paying dues to the sugarcane farmers. “An amount of Rs 22,000 crore is pending to the sugarcane growers in the country while in Haridwar district alone, a payment of Rs 300 crore is pending. This Government is forcing me to undertake a fast in front of the Vidhan Sabha,’’ he said.