2022 polls will pave way for Rahul to become PM: Rawat
Congress launches its campaign for 2022 assembly election in state from Haldwani
The Congress launched its campaign for the 2022 assembly election in the state with a big “Vijay Sankalp Shankhnad” rally in Haldwani on Thursday. Addressing the rally, Congress national general secretary Harish Rawat exorted confidence that the party will come to power in the state in 2022 and it will pave way for party leader Rahul Gandhi to become the prime minister in the 2024 general election. Rawat, who is also the president of Congress state election campaign committee, said: “The Vijay Sankalp Shankhnad is a call by Congress workers to bring a change in the state by bringing the party to power. Once voted to power, our government will bring change in lives of poor, labourers, women, Dalits, youth, minorities and all the oppressed sections of the society.” “The Congress coming to power in the state in 2022 will then gradually lead to win in other states also which will finally pave the way for our leader Rahul Gandhi to become the prime minister in 2024.” The former chief minister, while accusing the ruling BJP of doing nothing for the development of state, said, “In the last four and a half years of its tenure, the BJP government snatched every happiness from the people of state. Our party, after coming to power, will return the happiness to them. We will become the support stick of their lives unlike the BJP.” Citing the employment issue, Rawat said the BJP only made tall promises on it but failed to give “even a single government job” to the youth of state. “During the three years of my tenure as the CM, we gave 32,000 government jobs to the youth. I dare this BJP government to even name 3,200 youth whom it provided government jobs in the last four and a half years. If they manage to do so, I will leave politics,” said Rawat. “If voted to power we will work on the issue of unemployment with utmost priority and fill the vacancies in the first year of our tenure.”
‘Dhami is mining lover’
Rawat also accused chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami of “being interested only in mining to mint money”. “The present CM is not interested in making public welfare schemes but deploying heavy excavators in our rivers and rivulets for mining so as to mind money... He may be nothing but one thing is sure that he is mining lover CM,” said Rawat. Besides, the Congress leader accused the BJP government of discontinuing various welfare programmes started by the erstwhile Congress government. “If voted to power, we will again revive all those programmes for various sections of the society,” said Rawat. Earlier, party leader Yashpal Arya lashed out at the BJP by accusing it of doing nothing for development but only making tall promises. “The BJP only makes tall promises but fulfils none. It is only fit to be in the Opposition where they are good at raising issues. They don’t know how to run a government,” said Arya. Arya, who was earlier a cabinet minister in present BJP government, returned to the Congress with his MLA son Sanjiv Arya last month. The union minister and BJP poll in charge for the state, Prahlad Joshi, arrived in Dehradun on Thursday. He rejected Rawat’s allegations saying, “All know what he did in Punjab.” “The Congress is already leadership less in the Centre and seems to experience similar fate in Uttarakhand too as all know what their (possible) CM candidate and senior leader Harish Rawat did in Punjab while being its state in charge,” said Joshi. “The BJP is going to win the election on the basis of development works it did under the leadership of PM Modi and Dhami. We are only putting more efforts to make the win a historical one.”