Priyanka calls Modi a ‘failed PM’
Gandhi addresses tribal issues in the final polling phase that will take place in Jharkhand on Friday
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday made a maiden appearance in Jharkhand to campaign for Congress candidate and former speaker Alamgir Alam at Pakur, where polling will take place on Friday in the last and fifth phase. Priyanka made a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called him a "failed PM".
Priyanka talked only on the local issues of Santhal Parganas regions in Jharkhand and said, like her grand mother Indira Gandhi, she too was for the tribals and struggled for them.She recalled that in Sonebhadra, UP, she had rushed to sympathise with the tribals, whose lands were grabbed by some influential land lords, and was detained at a guest house.
Priyanka said the Congress would support the demands of the tribals of Jharkhand and there would be no amendment in the Chhotanagpur Tenacy Act and Santhal Parganas Act. The land taken away from them and handed over to the selected industralists would be returned, she assured. Pointing out to Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Vaghel, who was sitting next to her, she reminded that in Chhattisgarh, the Congress government had returned land to the farmers of Bastar from the Tatas.
She even touched on issues, such as the agitation of the Aanganwadi and Asha workers as well as para-teachers, the cancelled 12 lakh BPL cards of the tribals, and the number of deaths due to starvation. She claimed that, in Jharkhand, the poor were getting five kgs rice free against 35 kgs in the Congress ruled states. "Farmers are not getting DAP fertiliser from the government. They are being given poor minimum support price of Rs 1250 per quintal against Rs 3500 in neighbouring Chhattisgarh," she said.
Jharkhand has rich mineral resources like coal, mica, uranium, yet its residents are poor. The price of onions has gone up to Rs 150 per kg, 4000 primary schools have been closed in Jharkhand, MNRGEA has been scrapped, she claimed.
Priyanka said that the PM has failed on all fronts, and was trying to divert attention from basic issues by introducing CAA and NRC. Assam government spent Rs 1600 crores on NRC preparation, but now it admits that it has failed.
Alamgir Alam is leader of opposition in the state assembly. On the last day of the campaign, working president of BJP JP Nadda addressed an election meeting at Dumka. Polling for the 16 constituencies in five districts will be held on Friday.