IANS/Kolar, Karnataka
Congress president Sonia Gandhi yesterday cautioned against divisive forces attempting to polarise the country, and urged the people to vote for her party in the Lok Sabha election.
“You have a great responsibility in this election to save the nation by voting for the Congress in majority and defeating those forces attempting to divide the country on religious and caste basis,” Gandhi said at a public meeting here, about 100km from Bangalore.
She asserted that the ruling party had worked for the poor, weaker sections, minorities and scheduled castes and tribes and said the Congress-led government had transformed the landscape of rural India by providing basic infrastructure and access to education and healthcare.
“It is our progressive policies that enabled the people to access mobile, computer and Internet even in villages and small towns,” she said.
“Social and welfare schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Right to Education, National Rural Health Mission and credit to farmers at low interest rate have lifted about 150mn people to middle class from below poverty line,” she added.
The reserved Lok Sabha Kolar parliamentary constituency for Scheduled Castes (SC) is represented by the five-time winner and federal minister K H Muniayppa, who is contesting for a record sixth time.
Taking potshots at the Gujarat development model claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as a panacea for the socio-economic problems in the country, Gandhi said the opposition wanted people to believe that no other model would work in the country and hence other states did not progress.
“It is a fallacy to think only the Gujarat development model works... It is a narrow view as there was more development in other states ruled by different parties. In fact, our development model benefited all sections of people, while the so-called Gujarat model benefited only industrialists and crony capitalists who were given hundreds of acres of lands at the cost of farmers,” she said.
Accusing the BJP of hiding the real picture of Gujarat and projecting Modi as a saviour of the country, Gandhi said it was the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government which had given the right to food security and empowered farmers to retain their lands from being acquired by vested interests.
“As we have promised in our manifesto for this election, we will provide right to healthcare and housing, provide 100mn jobs for youth, safety and security for women and old-age pension for men, women and widows. Hence, vote for our candidates,” she said.
Karnataka votes in the general election on April 17 to elect 28 lawmakers to the 16th Lok Sabha.
Half of the 46mn voters across the state are below 40 years and the enrollment of first-time voters in the 18-19 years age group has been “remarkable this time”.
“Our efforts to enroll as many citizens above 18 years as voters since January paid off as we have seen a record number of them, especially youth registering for the EPIC (electoral photo identity card),” state chief electoral officer Anil Kumar Jha said.
The number of voters has increased by 4.5mn from the 2009 general elections when the total electorate was 41.8mn.
Meanwhile in Kanker, Chhattisgarh, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi attacked Modi over the “snoopgate” controversy, and questioned the Gujarat chief minister’s candidate’s commitment to women empowerment.
“The leader from Gujarat” is involved in “phone tapping of girls,” Gandhi said at a rally in Kanker, adding those forces who have been attacking women in the past are now talking of women empowerment.
“The leader from Gujarat, who did surveillance on women in the past, is now seen on posters with promises to empower women,” he said.
Referring to the pub attack in Karnataka’s Mangalore in 2009 when the BJP was in power in the southern state, Gandhi said: “In Karnataka, they (BJP) have been involved in manhandling women.”
He expressed confidence that the Congress would win the Lok Sabha election and form the next government.
Gandhi also promised jobs to the youth of Chhattisgarh, alleging that the current BJP state government was incapable of creating employment.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi gestures as she arrives to attend a campaign rally in Kolar, around 62km from Bangalore, yesterday.
