In a major set back to Congress that too when Rahul Gandhi was present in his Parliamentary constituency at Amethi, a number of party workers in the district, including the Zila panchayat chairman, joined Samajwadi Party, on Monday.
According to reports, District Panchayat Chairman Kamla Devi Pasi, a number of district panchayat members, block development committee members and village heads joined SP in presence of state Cabinet minister and SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury and Amethi MlA and minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.
The move came on a day when Gandhi was in his constituency to lay the foundation stone for a mega food park.
Soon after the joining ceremony, Chowdhury said that with the new members in the SP fold, the Party would be strengthened further in Amethi and adjoining areas. Asked whether SP would field its candidate in Amethi to take on Gandhi in next year's lok Sabha polls, Chowdhury said that the final decision in that regard would be taken by the party leadership. later talking to media persons Ms Kamala Devi said that SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav hear the plight of the poor but such thing never happens in the Congress.
Meanwhile, reacting sharply on joining of the leaders in SP, state Congress president Nirmal Khatri accused the ruling Party for using the government to pressurise the
workers forcing them to join the SP brigade. "SP is trying to divert the attention of the people away from its failures on all fronts, especially law and order.
Members of other parties are being threatened and lured into joining SP", charged Nirmal Khatri, who is already busy in making efforts to make Rahul maiden rally after last Assembly elections in Aligarh and Rampur on coming Wednesday a big success. " The joining of the District Panchayat president of Amethi is a glaring example of the misdeed of the SP govenment," he claimed. However there was no reaction from Rahul Gandhi on the matter