The Priyanka effect: Congress to play long innings in UP

New Delhi, Jan 25: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he has given his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, newly-inducted general secretary with charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh, the target of ensuring that the party forms the next government in the state.

The Congress will also fight the coming Lok Sabha polls with "full strength", he said at a public meeting in his constituency.

His two-day visit to Amethi starting Wednesday had coincided with the formal entry of Priyanka Gandhi in politics, after years of speculation on whether she would take the plunge.

She has been appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East, while Jyotiraditya Scindia holds charge of UP West.

"Priyanka and Scindia have been given a target. That is to form a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh in the next election by defeating and wiping out the BJP," the Congress president said.

"Unlike PM Modi, I do not talk of a 'BJP-mukt Bharat' but speak with respect," Gandhi said, referring to Narendra Modi's call to "free" India of the Congress.

Whether it is Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, everywhere the Congress will fight with full might on the front foot, and you will see that after the Vidhan Sabha elections there will be a Congress government in the state," he said.

"In the Lok Sabha polls, we will contest with full strength, without taking a backward step," he said, referring to the election just months away.

He criticised the Central government over the Rafale aircraft deal and accused the prime minister of "waiving" industrialists' loans, charges countered earlier by the government.

"The watchman proved to be a thief," he said, and repeated the slogan, "Gali gali mein shor hai, chowkidar chor hai."

Earlier in the morning, Gandhi visited a local Shiva temple after meeting party workers at a guesthouse.

Addressing a public meeting in Salon area, he termed himself, his sister and mother Sonia Gandhi as "soldiers" for the people of the constituency.

While Rahul Gandhi won the 2014 parliamentary elections from Amethi, Sonia Gandhi is an MP from adjacent Rae Bareli.

Both fall under the turf carved out for Priyanka Gandhi. Narendra Modi's Varanasi constituency and chief minister Yogi Adityanath's bastion Gorakhpur are also in eastern UP.

Rahul Gandhi reiterated he has full respect for leaders like Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The SP and the BSP recently forged an alliance for UP in the coming Lok Sabha polls, keeping the Congress out of the pact.

The Congress president said the prime minister had not kept his poll promise on creating jobs, and suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party government had slowed development in his constituency.

"You will get your food park back, not 99 per cent but 101 per cent. All development projects that have been stalled by Narendra Modi and Yogiji to hurt you will be back," he said.

"The BJP people are spreading hatred in the name of religion, caste and region. They get people of UP and Bihar thrown out of Gujarat, get Hindus and Muslims fight each other,'" he charged.

"Narendra Modi means hatred, he is the symbol of hatred," he said. "We will remove Modi in 2019 and no one can stop this."