By IANS,
Lucknow : The Congress party reiterated its aim to return to power in Uttar Pradesh, consolidating its performance in the Lok Sabha elections, as its newly elected MPs from the state were felicitated here Saturday.
Each of the 19 MPs who spoke on the occasion spoke of establishing a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 when the state goes to the polls.
The only two MPs from the state who could not make it were Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son, general secretary Rahul Gandhi. “They had prior engagements in Delhi,” said state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi.
Congress general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh, who is in charge of the party in Uttar Pradesh, chaired the function.
The enthusiasm visible in the Congress rank and file at the meet signalled the beginning of rejuvenation of the party in the country’s most populous state, where the party had faded into oblivion over the past two decades.
Ravindralaya, which had been the venue for several Congress conventions in the yesteryears, was once again alive and bubbling with activity. Not only was every inch of the auditorium packed with men and women clad in spotless white khadi, but the gathering had stretched to the far end of the Ravindralaya compound as well.
The road outside was repeatedly jammed with hundreds of vehicles bearing the Congress flag.
Cries of “Sonia Gandhi Zindabad”, “Rahul Gandhi Zindabad” and “Congress Party Zindabad” could be heard intermittently between speeches of leaders who made it a point to acknowledge the contribution of party workers right down to the grassroots level for putting the party back on the rails in the state.
Pradeep Jain, the newly elected MP from Jhansi, not only praised his supporters, but preferred to step down from the dais and join them amidst the audience.
Taking the cue from Jain, former state Congress president and now central minister Salman Khurshid too praised the cadre for putting the party back in the reckoning.
“The most important thing in democracy is to maintain rapport with the grassroots workers. I believe that if high office becomes a hurdle in this path, one should abdicate the chair rather than alienate oneself from the rank and file,” said Khurshid amid cheers from the crowds.
Be it state Congress president Joshi or state Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pramod Tiwari or newly elected MP Jagdambika Pal, they all called for voting out Chief Minister Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2012 assembly elections.
While none talked about pulling down the Mayawati government, Minister of State for Coal Sriprakash Jaiswal said: “Given the poor governance and overall deterioration on all fronts, state elections could be held anytime in the state.”
Digvijay Singh added: “Where there’s will, there’s a way.” He also had a word of advice for the party’s central ministers from the state.
“It is about time that our party’s ministers undertook tours of different areas of the state and not only apprised the people of what the central government was doing for them, but also drew their attention to the failures and pitfalls of the Mayawati government.”
Singh earlier in the day visited Joshi’s house that was torched, allegedly by BSP supporters following her remarks against Mayawati earlier this month.