JABALPUR, June 12 (PTI): Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Monday kickstarted her party’s campaign for the year-end Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh with a rally in Jabalpur where she accused the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government of being mired in corruption and failing to provide jobs.
She cited alleged corruption in Vyapam, ration distribution, mining, e-tender and the fight against coronavirus and said 225 “scams” had taken place in the 220 months of Bharatiya Janata Party rule in the state.
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The BJP government in the state indulges in a “new scam every month”, she said.
Gandhi said, if voted to power in MP, the Congress will provide Rs 1,500 per month to women, LPG cylinders for Rs 500, 100 units of electricity free, implement the old pension scheme, and waive off farm loans.
“The Congress government in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has restored the OPS. Our government in Karnataka has cleared the five guarantees (the poll promises made by the party there),” she said.
“In the last three years, only 21 government jobs were provided in the state by the BJP government. When this figure was brought to my notice, I got it checked three times from my office and found it is a fact,” she said.
Gandhi said the Chouhan government had not even spared gods, referring to winds on May 28 damaging six idols in the Ujjain’s Mahakal Lok corridor, the first phase of which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October last year.
The 900-metre corridor at the renowned Mahakaleshwar Temple is being built at a cost of Rs 856 crore and the first phase expenditure is Rs 351 crore.
Mocking the BJP’s “double-engine government” poll talk, Gandhi said, “We have seen a lot of double and triple-engine governments, but people of Himachal and Karnataka have given a befitting reply in the polls.”
“Double engine government” is a term used by the BJP to claim having a ruling dispensation of the party in the state and Centre was beneficial to people in terms of development.
BJP governments in both states were unseated in polls that were held in November last year in Himachal Pradesh and in May this year in Karnataka. The Congress won 40 seats in the 68-member House in HP and 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly in Karnataka.
Taking a jibe at Congressman-turned BJP leader and union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gandhi, without taking his name, said some leaders in Madhya Pradesh had abandoned the party’s ideology for the sake of power.
MLAs loyal to Scindia had quit the Congress in March 2020, bringing down the Kamal Nath government and paving the way for Chouhan to return to power.
“On the basis of money power, they (BJP) toppled the people’s mandate. The BJP can do anything to stay in power,” she said about the fall of the Nath government.
Accusing the BJP of winning elections by evoking sentiments and emotions and not addressing the people’s problems, she said citizens must ask them what had been done to tackle unemployment and inflation and boost education.
Hitting out CM Chouhan, who launched the ‘Ladli Behna’ scheme on Saturday, Gandhi asked what his government had done in the last 18 years for the betterment of women.
The government did nothing for women in the last 18 years but has started announcing sops since elections are approaching, she said.
In the 15-month tenure of Nath, loans of up to Rs 1 lakh of 27 lakh farmers were waived, while 1,000 cow shelters were made.
Asking people not to get carried away by those who whip up passions during polls, she narrated the anecdote of a farmer who turned broke by not irrigating his field but idly listening to television news that spoke of rains in a week.
“His crops were ruined. Do not get carried away by people who sell dreams of a better future,” Gandhi told the gathering.
Terming Chouhan as ‘ghoshnaveer’ (man prone to making announcements), Gandhi said he had made 22,000 announcements in 18 years as CM but was yet to implement even one of them.
The rally was also addressed by Nath and general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh JP Agrawal.
Senior leaders including Digvijaya Singh, Suresh Pachouri, Kantilal Bhuria and Vivek Tankha were present on the occasion.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi offered prayers to Narmada River, considered the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, after arriving in Jabalpur.
Gandhi performed puja along the banks of the Narmada at Gwarighat accompanied by Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath, party general secretary in-charge of the state JP Agrawal and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha.
Gandhi, who was presented with an idol of Lord Ganesh by local MLA Tarun Bhanot, and other leaders pledged to keep the Narmada clean.
Jabalpur is at the centre of the state’s Mahakoshal region, which has a sizable number of tribal voters. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress won 11 of the 13 Scheduled Tribe reserved seats in the eight-district division, with the remaining two bagged by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mahakoshal or Jabalpur division comprises Jabalpur, Katni, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Balaghat, Mandla, Dindori, and Chhindwara districts and has 38 Assembly seats.
In the last Assembly polls, the Congress won 24 of these seats while the BJP managed to win 13. One seat was bagged by an Independent candidate.
