After Rahul Gandhi’s claim that had the Congress fielded Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have also lost the election, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai on Wednesday said that the party lost several seats in the state in the recently-held Lok Sabha polls due to the misuse of government machinery by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“We were comfortably winning the Deoria, Maharajganj, Bansgaon and Amroha Lok Sabha seats along with some other seats, but the BJP misused official machinery to snatch our candidates’ victories,” he said.
Addressing a press conference at UPCC headquarters here on Wednesday that the UP Congress wanted Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the party decided that she should campaign across the country.
“We wanted Priyanka Gandhi to fight against Modi in Varanasi. But the party did not take a call on it because she had to move around the country during the polls," Rai said.
The Congress had fielded Rai from the Varanasi parliamentary seat. Modi defeated Rai with a margin of 1,52,513 votes.
Rai said the election results, especially of Uttar Pradesh, were being discussed in the entire country as the INDIA bloc excelled by winning more than 200 seats.
“This time UP has proved wrong Modiji’s slogan of crossing the 400-seat-mark. The claim of winning 80 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP has been shattered too. Besides, the claim of winning by 10 lakh votes in Varanasi has been blown to smithereens,” he said.
Rai said the Congress would take out ‘Aabhaar’ (gratitude) yatras across the state and reach all the 403 UP assembly constituencies. Rahul Gandhi started the Aabhaar Yatra from Rae Bareli on Tuesday. This journey will last for 15 days, he added.
On alleged rigging in NEET examination, Rai said students across the country were agitated. “Earlier the papers were being leaked only in UP. Now it has started happening at the national level. The questions raised regarding the NEET are serious. The Supreme Court deserves congratulations for seeking a reply on the petition related to this. The youth’s trust is being broken due to this failure of the governments,” Rai asserted.
Talking about rising inflation, he said, “Prices of pulses have increased. There is no flour, we will get it imported from outside. The Congress will raise the issue of inflation. The government should provide benefits not to industrialists but to the general public.”
He further said there was a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Lieutenant Governor (Manoj Sinha) was busy campaigning in Varanasi and Ghazipur.
“"We condemn it. Many people from UP were among the dead. The government should make such arrangements that such attacks do not recur. The BJP had claimed that terrorism has ended but nothing like this has happened,” the Congress leader said, adding that the prime minister and his team had least concern with the general public and the newly-formed government was still busy celebrating formation of government instead of mourning the death in terror attack or taking any strong action.
Taking potshots at the BJP-led Centre, Congress MLA Aradhana Mishra Mona said President Droupadi Murmu, who comes from the tribal community, was not invited to Ayodhya for the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram temple. “The saffron party should not do drama and now UP has rejected this politics,” she said.
