After Manmohan Singh failed to enthuse the Congress, AICC president Sonia Gandhi stepped in to shore up the party’s prospects in Punjab.
Sonia Gandhi tells voters in Punjab to bring back Cong for development
After prime minister Manmohan Singh failed to enthuse the Congress during his two-day campaign trail, AICC president Sonia Gandhi stepped in on Wednesday to shore up the party’s electoral prospects in Punjab.
As the prime minister had failed to draw impressive crowds, a stern word was sent across to the Congress candidates to muster up adequate strength for the public meetings of Sonia Gandhi. More so after a public fracas between Punjab PCC chief Shamsher Singh Dullo and Congress leader Manish Tiwari in Ludhiana on Tuesday, where the PM’s rally had failed miserably to draw crowds.
However, Sonia had better attendance at her two meetings at Jandiala and Phagwara (Kapurthala), but her running theme was repetitive.
If in one breath she blamed the Akalis for decade-long militancy in Punjab, which was largely sponsored by Pakistan, in another breath she harped at length on the improvement of ties with Pakistan and the possible chances of improving trade ties, something that the PM had also emphasised during his address on Monday.
“I think the policies of our government at the Centre and in Punjab have resulted in improvement of ties with Pakistan. This would help benefit trade and industry of the border state,” she said.
Referring to the Amritsar region, the Congress chief, who is on his first leg of electioneering in the state, said it has been the centre of woolen clothes and small scale industries and had suffered too because of its proximity to the border.
She said that Punjab was fast emerging as a prosperous state again, as huge capital has been invested and several new schemes for Dalits and other weaker sections had been launched.
Echoing the Prime Minister’s lines, Gandhi said people of Punjab should defeat forces which were out to disturb peace in the state and asked people to wipe out SAD-BJP alliance. “Every vote should be polled for Congress candidates and every Akali Dal-BJP candidate should be defeated,” she said.
Gandhi said the policies of the UPA government at the Centre and in Punjab had resulted in improvement of ties with Pakistan which would help benefit trade and industry in the border state.
Congress wanted unity of the country and development of all sections, she said and asked the people to keep out those forces who wanted to “vitiate” peace. “We can move ahead only when there is peace,” she said . “The foundation of sculpting a ‘new Punjab’ has been laid by the present regime, bring back Congress if you want to accelerate the development,” Gandhi said.
Sonia will come again on February 10 to address two more public meetings in the state.
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