‘The BSP and SP have no chance... Congress will come to power in UP’

Dr Sanjay Singh

, chairman of the Congress Campaign Committee, speaks with

Ashhar Khan

about the exit of Congress’ former Uttar Pradesh state president Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi and its ramifications for the grand old party in the poll-bound state.

What impact will the exit of Rita Bahuguna Joshi have for the Congress in Uttar Pradesh

It will have no impact whatsoever. Her father had also left the Congress. Sometime back her brother, Vijay Bahuguna, had also left the party. She was given everything by the party — she was made the state president, a ticket to be an MP was given, and then an MLA ticket was given. She was also the president of the Mahila Congress. Earlier, there were rumours of her going to the Samajwadi Party. And now, perhaps, she saw that the BJP is a better option and that is why she went there. But for the Congress, it is going to make no difference.

She has raised serious questions on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi saying that the country will never accept him as a leader. Who is Rita to decide who will be accepted or rejected as a leader This is decided by the masses. The Gandhi family has stood the test of time. They have been at the service of the nation for a long time. There was a brief lull after the tragic death of Rajiv Gandhi. Rahul has won three elections back to back and he has been actively campaigning. Rita has herself seen the kind of response Rahul gets from the people. This is not limited to Uttar Pradesh only.

She has also questioned the role of Prashant Kishor, calling him a director of the elections. How do you see this (Laughs) well she should also question her current master Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After all, Modiji also took advise of Prashant Kishor during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. How come she is silent on this So when Kishor was the “director” with Modiji it was fine, now if he has joined us then Rita has problems These are double standards. Rita should go ahead and ask Modiji this question.

You’re the chief of the campaign committee in Uttar Pradesh. Did you sideline her in the yatras Of course not. In fact, she was with us in the yatra which I and our chief ministerial candidate Sheila Dikshit were leading. These are all excuses. She was involved in everything right from the beginning so this charge is completely baseless.

You had 29 MLAs in Uttar Pradesh now eight of them have left. You are looking at it from a different angle. Please count the number of people who have joined us from other parties. There is a rage for Congress in Uttar Pradesh. The kind of response we have received from our yatras is unparallel and unprecedented. We are all united in the Congress; there is no infighting. Our fight is only with the BJP and nobody else. The BSP and SP have no chance and you take it from me the Congress will form a government in Uttar Pradesh.

You have had yatras and kisan mangpatras are being filled what next You will see how it goes. We are meeting again in the next two days to firm up our programmes. But let me assure you our worker is out on the streets meeting people. It has been 27 years now that the Congress is out of power and look at the condition of the state. There is complete lawlessness prevailing in the state. Look at the condition of the electricity supply — it is as if development has bypassed my state.

The problem with the Congress is that it does not follow up after events. How is it being rectified now Let me tell you there is no such problem. We have an entire team at the state level to take care of all this. The entire organisation of the Congress is there and we followup. The yatra concluded almost 20 days back and still we are getting forms filled up. This means that we are connecting with farmers. The current governments both at the Centre and the state have not tendered to the farmer while the Congress has. We deliver on what we promise — we had waived off loans when the UPA-1 was in power and we will do it again as soon as we come to power in Uttar Pradesh.

So is it certain now that there will be no alliance and the Congress will contest on its own There is no question of an alliance. There is nobody in the picture. To begin with, the SP and the BSP are not in the race. So there is no question of alliance. We are present in all the 400 odd constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. Our workers are present all along. Soon the process of candidate selection will start which will be our major thrust.

In the days to come, there would be the process of building our manifesto in Uttar Pradesh. Lots of recommendations are coming to us from all quarters to include various issues in our manifesto. Just wait and see how the campaign will go to a new level in the next two months. Our connection with the masses of Uttar Pradesh will unsure our undoubted victory.