Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said out loud that the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP) and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for alleging Congress to be colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She said that she would rather die than have any kind of association with the saffron party.
While addressing a ‘Pratigya Rally’ in Gorakhpur, she urged people at the gathering to ask themselves why they never see the SP and BSP conclave standing by them during tough times. “They (SP and BSP) say the Congress is working in collusion with the BJP. I want to ask — why don’t they stand with you in your tough times? Only Congress is fighting. I will die, but never have any kind of relationship with BJP,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Remembering her grandmother, former PM Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary, Vadra said, “For her, there was nothing greater than your faith in her. It’s because of her teachings that I’m standing in front of you and I’ll also never break your faith.”
Further talking about the SP and BSP, she said that it was them who had closed down all mills opened during previous Congress regimes in the state. “You know who shut down sugarcane mills established during Congress governments here. The governments of SP and BSP closed those mills and they’re saying that Congress is working in collusion with BJP.”
She also criticised the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government for increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for sugarcane only months before the election. “It has been said that the MSP for sugarcane will be raised. Why are you announcing it now? What were you doing in the last four-and-a-half years? Didn’t you find the right time to increase the price of sugarcane till then?” she questioned.
For the assembly elections scheduled next year, she talked to women voters and said, “I want to tell my sisters — I’ll fight for you. Congress will fight for you. I want to give power to you so that you can fight your struggle. When 40 per cent of women will come into politics, they will change the face of politics.”
