Unlike BSP and SP, Congress is fighting for people: Priyanka

Dismissing talks of an alliance with the rival Opposition parties, Priyanka told Congress office-bearers and workers in Bulandshahr that the party would contest every seat in the upcoming Assembly elections on its own, and said it was time for the party to either “do or die” in Uttar Pradesh. She was addressing the party’s “Pratigya Sammelan-Lakshya 2022” event.

Targeting the rival Opposition parties, the Congress leader said workers of the BSP and the SP had failed to reach out to those in need in the past two years, be it in Umbha, Unnao, Hathras or Lakhimpur Kheri. In contrast, 18,700 Congress workers, including its state chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, had been arrested since the Covid-19 pandemic began for questioning the BJP-led state government in public interest, Priyanka said. No BSP or SP leader went to jail during this time, she said.

This, the Congress leader said, was an answer to those claiming that the party does not have any organisational presence in the state. They should be told that the Congress has cadre till the naya panchayat level, she added.

“Neither the SP nor the BSP is fighting [the BJP]. Only the Congress is in this fight. Why doesn’t the BJP attack the SP or BSP the same way it challenges the Congress? They launch all kinds of attacks on us. It is because only Congress is fighting the battle and not SP or BSP. When people were struggling, Congress workers were on the road, not SP or BSP.”

The Congress general secretary asked if the SP and BSP had fought for the victims in the Unnao, Hathras, and Lakhimpur Kheri incidents.

Priyanka said it was the time of “karo ya maro [do or die]” for the UP Congress. “The Congress once had a slogan, ‘karo ya maro [do or die]’. I want to invoke it again. This is [a] do-or-die [situation] for us now and there is no place for cowardice. Above our personal selves, it is time to think about the country.