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‘Our fight is not against any political party, but against vandalism, corruption and communalism -- each of which are respectively represented by the SP, the BSP and the BJP’.
Newly-appointed chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit and state chief Raj Babbar came out all guns blazing against the SP, BSP and BJP, promising to restore the party to its grand days three decades ago.
The arrival of newly-appointed Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar and the party’s chief ministerial nominee Shiela Dikshit on Sunday marked the re-awakening of a party in the country’s most populous state where it ruled for four long decades before being voted out 27 years ago.
It was flowers all the way from the city airport to the Congress headquarters on Mall Road as the cavalcade of new state chief Raj Babbar and Dikshit meandered through 16 km-long route dotted with welcome arches and chock-a-block with enthusiastic party workers showering rose petals and shouting slogans.
Actor-turned-politician Babbar, known for his antics and melodrama, easily captured the crowds, who applauded him each time he took potshots at the three key political opponents -- the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- against whom he declared war.
Asked if he was carrying a magic wand to infuse life into the state Congress, he told the press, “Well, I do not have any magic wand, but the wand lies in the finger of every voter, who will soon realise that his true well-wisher -- the Congress -- is back in the reckoning and is all set to form the next government in Uttar Pradesh.”
When a scribe sought to know which party did he consider his main political adversary, he shot back, “Our fight is not against any political party, but against vandalism, corruption and communalism -- each of which are respectively represented by the SP, the BSP and the BJP.”
He said, “Both the SP and BSP had ruled the state four times while the BJP remained in power thrice, but the leaders of these caste and religion based parties only pursued their personal agenda and ignored the well being of common people.”
Taking on the current SP dispensation, Babbar pointed out, “Before the SP rode into power in 2012, its supremo, Mulayam Singh Yadav, went about flaying BSP and promised to send its leaders to jail for squandering away the taxpayers’ money, but after acquiring power, he said that the government was incapable of stopping the loot.”
Babbar didn’t waste much time as he also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he said had fooled the UP electorate into giving away as many as 73 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP in 2014, while terming BJP chief Amit Shah of being a “wheeler-dealer”.
Both Babbar and Dikshit profusely thanked party workers for turning up in such large numbers. They also had words of praise for the members of their team, which include nine-term MLA Pramod Tiwari, former minister Sanjay Singh, former UP Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Lok Sabha MP PL Punia, former minister Mohsina Kidwai to name a few.
Both the office-bearers also expressed their gratitude to the Gandhis -- Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka.
And when a scribe sought to know Priyanka’s status in the party, they described her as “part of the family that was hailed as messiah of the country for which its members had sacrificed their lives.”
Even though it is too early to predict what lies in store for the party, there’s no doubt that the new team has acquired success in round one.