Amethi to turn employment battle ground

Lucknow: To counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) propaganda against Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his own constituency Amethi, the Congress has decided to prepare ‘Army warriors’ in the constituency.

The Congress will be holding camps in Amethi where youths wanting to join the Indian Army will be given preliminary training.

A Delhi-based company will be organising these camps which will be of a three-month duration.

According to district Congress president Yogendra Misra, youths will be given free training. “They will be mentally prepared for a career in the armed forces and will also be given physical training in the camps. They will be trained for the written entrance tests also. We will getting special trainers for these camps and selection will be done on first come, first served basis”, he said.

The Congress leader said that his party president had initiated several projects for Amethi that were designed to generate employment but after the Modi government came to power, most of these projects were either stalled or scrapped. “It is on the initiative of the Congress president that these camps are being held so that the youth here can be trained and prepared to get employment,” he said.

The BJP, it may be recalled, has been constantly attacking Mr Gandhi for not providing employment to the youth in Amethi.

Union minister Smriti Irani who unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Amethi, has been regularly visiting the constituency and interacting with voters to highlight the lack of employment and development in this VIP constituency.

BJP district spokesperson Govind Singh said, “Mr Gandhi has been the MP from Amethi for the past 15 years but has done nothing for its development. His family has represented the constituency for an even longer period. The camp to train the youth for a career in the Army is merely an election stunt because the Congress knows that it will lose the seat in 2019.”