Uttar Pradesh: Congress will tour parched land to ‘expose’ SP, BJP

Congress legislators in Uttar Pradesh will now tour the 50 drought-affected districts in the state and expose the claims being made by the Samajwadi government in the state and the Modi government at the Centre.

The Congress MLAs will begin the tour on May 9 and conclude it on May 22. The legislators are required to submit their reports to the party high command by May 31.

Congress legislature party leader Pradeep Mathur said that the decision has been taken on the directives of AICC general secretary in charge of UP affairs, Mr Madhusudan Mistry. He said that the idea was to bring the truth behind the drought–affected districts before the country.

“Both, the Samajwadi Party in the state and the Modi government at the Centre are claiming to have provided adequate relief in these areas but this is not the whole truth. Our legislators will visit these areas, prepare a report and submit it to the party leadership so that a holistic picture can be formed”, he said.

Congress sources said that the party was now ready to take on the ruling Samajwadi Party as well as the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and this was the beginning of the exercise.

“We are not going to restrict ourselves to issuing statements now. We will speak with facts and figures. Some of the MLAs have decided to get the situation video recorded so that the ruling party in the state and the Centre cannot deny facts. Both the BJP and the SP are happily playing a blame game and seeking publicity, while people and cattle are dying of hunger and thirst,” said the CLP leader.

This, incidentally, will be the first time that the Congress will launch a frontal attack on the Samajwadi government in UP. In the past four years, the party has avoided a direct confrontation with the Akhilesh government, inside and outside the UP Assembly and criticism has been restricted to press statements issued by the UPCC.

A senior party functionary said, “We will have to move out of our comfort zone and take an aggressive stand against the state and Central governments. In the coming days, you will see more such activity in which we will expose the nexus between the SP and BJP and also how they have been fooling the people of the state”.

The decision to take an aggressive turn has, apparently, come after the Modi government turned the heat on the Congress leadership on the AgustaWestland issue. The party wants to “return the favour” by exposing the BJP and also the SP which has been “tacitly supporting the Modi government”.