Cong plans protest outside Maya home

NEW DELHI: The Congress plans to take its battle against Mayawati to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s house. Quite literally.

On Tuesday, the party plans to demonstrate outside her ancestral home in Badalpur village in Guatam Bodhnagar near Delhi against the UP government’s plans to forcibly acquire farmland. Coming close on the heels of the confrontation between the two parties during last week’s vote of confidence, the move is likely to escalate tension.

Digvijay Singh, AICC general secretary in charge of UP, Rita Bahuguna, UPCC chief, and Congress MP Sachin Pilot will lead the demonstration. According to the Congress, she has built a palatial home over 47 bighas and the state government is now in the process of acquiring hundreds of bighas from nearby villages at throwaway prices for a picnic spot. Villagers, protesting the acquisition, have set up a Village Sangharsh Samiti.

The Congress has linked up with the Sangharsh Samiti and plans to cash in on the issue against the CM. The BSP chief is already under investigation by the CBI for accumulating wealth in excess of her known sources of income.
j_ansari@dnaindia.net