Madhya Pradesh elections: Priyanka Gandhi kick-starts Congress’s campaign in Jabalpur, hits out at BJP over jobs, scams

Priyanka performed the Narmada puja at Gwarighat in the city, accompanied by MP Congress president Kamal Nath, and other leaders.

Priyanka gandhi in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur

Priyanka Gandhi performing Narmada puja at Gwarighat (right) ahead of the Jabalpur rally. (PTI)

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra kickstarted the Congress campaign for the Madhya Pradesh elections on Monday by hitting out at the BJP over issues ranging from scams to promises of jobs.

At the rally in Jabalpur, Priyanka said the BJP regime has given only 21 government jobs in the state in the last three years. Alleging that the people of Madhya Pradesh are being “used” for the last 18 years, Priyanka said the BJP makes big promises during elections but don’t try to fulfil them. “I have seen several double, triple-engine governments, but people of Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka gave befitting reply to them. What happened to you in the past 18 years is wrong. You have been used and exploited,” she said.

She further said the BJP’s list of scams is longer than the number of insults Prime Minister Narendra Modi has uttered for the Congress, in a reference to the latter’s remark during the Karnataka election campaign warning people against ‘fake guarantees’ by the Congress.

Priyanka hit out at the collapse of ‘Saptarishis’ installed on the Mahakaleshwar temple premises in Ujjain city, saying the “BJP has not even spared Gods”. The Congress party had alleged corruption on BJP’s part, saying that the ruling party “didn’t keep even the sacred Mahakal away from its loot”.

“They have done 250 scams, every month a new scam has been done. The biggest impact of this will be felt by the public. Whenever ministers in the government only focus on loot, they do not focus on the main interest of the public. They think they will never be removed from power. They recently made announcements for women. They did this because in six months, elections are coming. You have been running the government for the past three years, then why didn’t you make this announcement before?” Priyanka asked.

BJP ने 220 महीनों के शासन में 225 घोटाले किए हैं।

व्यापम घोटाला, शिक्षक भर्ती घोटाला, पुलिस भर्ती घोटाला, खनन घोटाला, कोरोना घोटाला, बिजली विभाग का घोटाला, ई-टेंडर घोटाला, टीवी सेट वितरण घोटाला।

इन्होंने नर्मदा मैया और महाकाल कॉरिडोर को भी नहीं छोड़ा।

: @priyankagandhi जी… pic.twitter.com/edrNnHgGhi

— Congress (@INCIndia) June 12, 2023

She highlighted that her late grandmother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi worked for the welfare of the Adivasi community and backward classes. “Today your plight is that atrocities are increasing – whether it is the old, young, tribals, dalits.,” Priyanka said.

Calling Chouhan a “ghoshna veer” (king of announcements), Priyanka said BJP leaders will do anything for power. “He (CM) has made 22,000 announcements, if he could have only given 22,000 jobs then it would have benefited him. The truth is in front of you. All the work that has been done was done by the Congress government, it was done with a vision for your development. Jawaharlal Nehru got IITs across the country, Indira Gandhi brought the green revolution, Rajiv Gandhi worked for a modern India, Manmohan Singh did a lot of work to take India forward. There was a vision,” she said.

Reiterating the Congress’s promises in Karnataka, where the party won the election last month, Priyanka said, “People who have faith in power will not listen to you. In Karnataka we made the government and we made sure to pass all out five guarantees in the Cabinet. In Rajasthan, the old pension scheme has been implemented. In the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, the farmers get the highest value for their dhan across the country, the old pension is implemented. Look at Himachal, all the promises are implemented. When Congress came to power in Madhya Pradesh, we waived the loans of 27 lakh farmers. One crore families were given 100 units of electricity. We have brought such guarantees which we will implement 100 percent.”

She concluded, “I want you to see the truth. On the basis of the truth, future, faith, devotion, go and cast your votes. I feel lucky that the start of our campaign has begun from the Naramada mother’s bank. We are here for the country, for you, and we will work for you with full devotion and love.”

At the rally, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath said religion is a subject of ideas, not a subject of publicicty which the BJP is making it into. He recalled that when the Congress as voted to power in 2018 and he became the chief minister, his predecessor, also the current CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, handed him a state that was “number 1 in farmer suicides, unemployment, crimes against women”. “In the past three years, what have you (Chouhan) given us? You have given us price rise, unemployment, covid scams, mafia raj, rapes, and one more thing, liquor to every household,” he said.

Calling it an election for the future of Madhya Pradesh, Nath said he cannot defeat Chouhan in his “dancing and announcements”, but he can defeat him in the matters of truth. “You have to decide what kind of a Madhya Pradesh you want to hand over to the future generations. Our biggest challenge is our unemployed youngsters. Our youngsters don’t want commission, our youngsters want work,” Nath said.

Priyanka performed the Narmada puja at Gwarighat in the city. She was accompanied by MP Congress president Kamal Nath, party general secretary in-charge of the state JP Agrawal and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha. She was presented with an idol of Lord Ganesh by local MLA Tarun Bhanot.

जय नर्मदा मैया।

Live: नर्मदा पूजन, गौरी घाट, जबलपुर, मध्यप्रदेश।https://t.co/zpXfBF3qD1

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) June 12, 2023

The leaders pledged to keep Narmada, considered the lifeline of Madhya Pradesh, clean.

Jabalpur is at the centre of the Mahakoshal region, which has a significant number of tribal voters. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress won 11 of the 13 Scheduled Tribe reserved seats in the division, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged the other two.

Jabalpur mayor and Congress’s city chief Jagat Bahadur had earlier told news agency PTI that before addressing a rally at Shahid Smarak, Priyanka will garland a statue of Rani Durgavati, who attained martyrdom fighting the Mughals. He also said that two lakh people are expected at the rally.

“People in Mahakoshal area or Jabalpur division having eight districts feel neglected by the BJP. We did well (last time) in the area. This time around we are going to sweep the polls,” he claimed.