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Kicking off the party’s campaign for the coming Assembly elections, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday targeted the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, charging that democracy and Constitution were under attack in Uttar Pradesh at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Democracy has been ripped off and the Constitution is under threat in UP by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fully supporting the chief minister for his conduct,” Vadra charged while interacting with the media during her visit to UP on Friday.
She claimed that Modi came here to praise Yogi for his work as if he was not seeing the lawlessness and total collapse of the health system during coronavirus times. She also questioned Modi’s praise for development in UP, asking if panchayat elections during the coronavirus pandemic peak that led to so many deaths was BJP’s development.
“The BJP was confident of winning panchayat elections so they went ahead but after facing defeat, the government used official machinery and party goons to rig the block pramukh and district panchayat chairpersons’ elections through kidnapping, killing, molesting of opposition candidates and by not allowing members to cast their votes,” Priyanka Vadra said, adding that the lawlessness during panchayat elections clearly pointed how the democracy and the Constitution were under attack in UP.
She alleged that BJP was using every tactic to remain in power but the Congress would not allow it to do so and would fight to save democracy.
Interestingly, just before leaving for Lucknow, Vadra on Friday also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for praising the Uttar Pradesh government for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis, saying his “certificate” could not hide the truth of the Yogi Adityanath dispensation's “cruelty, negligence and mismanagement” during the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak.
Modi, during his visit to his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Thursday, praised the Uttar Pradesh government for its handling of the Covid crisis and said the way it had controlled the second wave was "unprecedented".
"Modi ji's certificate cannot hide the truth of Yogi government's aggressive cruelty, negligence and mismanagement during the second wave of coronavirus spread in Uttar Pradesh," Priyanka said in a tweet in Hindi.
"People faced enormous hardships and helplessness… This truth can be forgotten by Modi ji, Yogi ji, but not by those who suffered the pain of coronavirus," the Congress general secretary in-charge of UP said.
Meanwhile, just before interacting with the media, which was delayed for more than three hours, Priyanka Vadra started an unannounced 'maun vrat' to protest increasing crime against women in Uttar Pradesh.
Priyanka, while on her way to the Congress headquarters here, stopped at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi to offer floral tributes. After offering tributes to the Father of the Nation, Priyanka squatted on the ground and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra said that she has started a 'maun vrat' in protest against the deteriorating law and order situation in UP and crime against women.
Priyanka's decision to proceed on a 'maun vrat' sent her own party leaders into a tizzy. The party leaders, who were waiting for her at the Congress office, rushed to the Mahatma Gandhi statue at GPO Park where she sat in protest.
Earlier, Priyanka Gandhi received a loud and warm welcome from party workers as she arrived in Lucknow on Friday afternoon on a three-day visit. Thousands of Congress workers greeted Priyanka at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport and a long winding convoy of vehicles accompanied her as she headed for the Congress headquarters, covering a distance of about 13 kilometres. Priyanka was greeted with flowers, bouquets and slogans shouting along the route.