Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Saturday hit out at Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for criticising her government and said the Congress should "first set its own house in order before accusing others".
Gandhi's support for state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who was arrested and sent to judicial custody for her remarks against the chief minister, has infuriated Mayawati further. A court on Saturday released Joshi on interim bail till July 29.
"It would have been better if Rahul had commented on the pavitra (holy) book in which Joshi has made disparaging remarks against senior Congress leaders," she said.
The book Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna, co-authored by Joshi and on the life of her father who was a chief minister, reportedly has passages attacking late prime minister Indira Gandhi and other Congress leaders.
Targeting "yuvraj" (prince) Gandhi for criticising the state's development, Mayawati said: "After independence, the Congress ruled Uttar Pradesh for nearly 40 years, but in terms of development we have done much more than the Congress in our two years.
"In terms of carrying out development in the state, Congress is far behind than BSP. It is to be noticed that owing to lack of development in the state, large-scale migration had taken place from Uttar Pradesh when the Congress ruled the state, as there was no development here."
While Rahul Gandhi Friday asked his party workers to work for the poor, Mayawati said: "The Congress in Uttar Pradesh has just failed to work as per the expectations of the public. Bet it Muslims, Dalits, people from backward classes or the poor from upper castes... the Congress has not bothered to work seriously (to improve) their living standards."
Gandhi had accused the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government of diverting developmental funds for setting up memorials to Mayawati. She replied: "I want to ask the Congress leaders whether they have not built memorials in memory of their leaders.
"The amount spent by BSP government on parks and statues is far less than that spent on Rajghat in Delhi," she said, referring to the memorial for Mahatma Gandhi.
Accusing the Congress of "buying votes" of the poor to win elections, Mayawati said: "By accepting huge amounts of money (from corporates), the Congress drafts policies in their favour and then uses the money to lure poor people.
"The Congress (-led central government) recently hiked petrol and diesel prices just to recover the money it spent on buying votes."
Mayawati announced a nationwide campaign against the policies of the Congress-lead central government from July 22.
Commenting on the BSP's outside support to the Congress-led government, she said: "We will continue to support the Central government, but the Congress high command should keep a strict vigil on some of its leaders and others who are spreading false rumours in this regard."
She indicated Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh could be the ones behind the rumours.
"We gave support to the Congress only to keep the communal forces from power and also to keep a check on those parties that could blackmail it in lieu of their support."
Mayawati blamed the Congress for power shortage in the state and said efforts were on to solve the crisis. "If all goes well, by 2014 people in the state will permanently get rid of power cuts."
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