Lucknow: Congress general secretary and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made seven promises to the people of Uttar Pradesh Saturday, ahead of next year’s assembly elections in the state.
The promises — which the party will deliver if it wins the polls — include farm loan waiver and providing 20 lakh government jobs, and were announced at Barabanki, during the flagging-off ceremony of the three ‘Pratigya Yatras’ being undertaken by Congress leaders across the state.
The three yatras will take three different routes — from Barabanki to Bundelkhand, Saharanpur to Mathura and Varanasi to Rae Bareli — between Saturday and 1 November.
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Priyanka’s seven promises
The seven promises made by Priyanka include 40 per cent Congress tickets to women in UP polls and free smartphones and e-scooters for girls, both of which she had announced Tuesday.
Her other promises made Saturday include farm loan waiver (full loan waiver for farmers in UP), 20 lakh government jobs for youth in Uttar Pradesh, electricity bill for farmers to be halved (and no electricity bills to be levied during the pandemic period), Rs 25,000 aid for families that have suffered financial crisis during Covid period and a minimum Rs 2,500 per quintal support price for rice and Rs 400 per quintal for sugarcane in UP.
Announcing her seven promises, Priyanka said, ‘if we form the government (in UP), we will fully fulfill our promises. A detailed manifesto will be be announced later.”
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Wooing UP’s women, farmers
Priyanka then flagged off the party’s ‘Pratigya Yatra’.
While the yatra on the Varanasi-Rae Bareli route, covering the Awadh region, will be led by former MP Pramod Tiwari, the Barabanki-Bundelkhand yatra will be led by leader P.L. Punia and former union minister of state Pradeep Jain Aditya.
The yatra on the Saharanpur-Mathura route, covering the western parts of the state, will be led by former union minister Salman Khurshid and senior party leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam.
The decision to undertake the yatras was taken at a meeting headed by Priyanka last month.
Before the flag off, Vadra also interacted with women farmers at an agricultural farm in Barabanki. “I want to understand their working conditions, how they are raising their daughters and if they are able to educate them,” she told the media.
“The ‘Pratigya Yatra’ is being undertaken following the instructions of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in order to politically empower and honour the women of the state, regarding the atrocities committed by the BJP government (referring to the government’s handling of the Hathras and Unnao rape cases) and to restore the respect and rights of the farmers, as well as for development (of the state),” UP Congress’s spokesperson Anshu Awasthi told ThePrint.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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