Elect Congress for strong government in Jharkhand, says Congress president Sonia Gandhi

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday urged the people of Jharkhand to cast their ballot in favour of her party for a strong government in the state.

"I salute this land of freedom fighters and hard working people. The Congress is a party of aspirations of people which has always fought for the rights of people. The Congress believes in taking all sections of society forward, we have worked for empowerment of dalits, tribal, backward and minority classes, women folk and other weaker sections of the society and will do so in the future as well," said Sonia.

"I appeal you all to cast your votes in favour of Congress candidates and form a strong government in Jharkhand," she added while speaking at an election rally here.

The Congress president took potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not utilizing the funds allotted by the former UPA regime.

"The funds allocated for development of Jharkhand were never utilized by the BJP-led state government," she said.

"Today, the BJP talks about malnutrition, why don't they pay attention to lakhs of people who are suffering from same in BJP-led states. Even people in Gujarat also face this same, why don't they pay attention to that," she added.

The Congress president also criticized the Centre of repackaging several schemes initiated by the erstwhile UPA regime.

"You have 40 percent of minerals of the nation, still your state is lagging behind. They (BJP) have no policies of their own, they are just repackaging our policies and announcing as their own. You should not be fooled by false promises made by BJP," she said.

The first phase of the five-phased polling in Jharkhand will be held on Tuesday. The counting of votes will take place on December 23.