GUWAHATI, March 22: In a counter to the aggressive campaigns of the incumbent BJP ahead of the Assam Assembly elections, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday accused the saffron party of “betraying the people of Assam” and “functioning like a mafia and running syndicates in the state”.
Addressing a poll rally at Sarupathar in Golaghat district on the second day of her visit to the state, the Congress general secretary (in charge of Uttar Pradesh) slammed the ruling BJP of not living up to its commitment of providing jobs to unemployed youths while “selling off the state’s resources to its industrialist friends”.
“BJP is resorting to politics of dividing people for its own gain. It has cheated the tea workers, deprived communities of Scheduled Tribe status. This government is not functioning like a political party but like a mafia. There is syndicate raj thriving in Assam. The state government is selling off assets of Assam like oilfields, refineries and airports to industrialists and even animals from the zoo to politicians. The BJP government is only resorting to politics and dividing people,” Priyanka alleged.
She pointed out that 40 lakh youths were still unemployed in Assam, while lashing out at the BJP’s “failed promise in 2016” to provide 25 lakh jobs.
The Congress leader did not stop there. Without naming any leader in the rival camp, she alleged that in “the BJP-led Assam government, there is a “Dhritarashtra”, once referred to as the jatiya nayak (people’s leader), who has betrayed the people after promising Scheduled Tribe status. “There is a “Shakuni” as well, who runs a corrupt government,” she added.
“The Congress governments in the past have never divided people or attacked culture,” she claimed, while urging the people to understand the significance of the “ground reality” and “reflect on how the BJP has betrayed the people of Assam in the past five years”.
“The reality is that the BJP has not left any stone unturned to remain in power. This election is not an election of the Congress or BJP…it is an election Assam, its people, culture, identity, future and development,” she said.
In another rally at Nagaon later in the day, the Congress leader accused the BJP leaders of “saying one thing on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in poll rallies in Assam and just the opposite in Bengal.”
“The onus is on you to save Assam, its culture and its assets,” she appealed to the people.