No Need to be Angry, Our Target is to Defeat BJP: Priyanka Gandhi Reacts After Maya's Rejection

Lucknow: Hours after Mayawati rejected the Congress offer of not fielding candidates on seven Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi told the BSP supremo there was no reason to get angry as both parties shared the common goal of defeating the BJP.

In a tweet, Mayawati had re-iterated her party’s stand on not having any alliance with the Congress in UP or elsewhere. “Congress is free to field its candidates in all 80 LS seats in UP. The SP-BSP alliance is capable of taking on the BJP,” Mayawati had tweeted.

The former UP chief minister made it clear that the SP-BSP combine had no poll understanding with the Congress anywhere in the country. “Our supporters should not fall for doubts being created by the Congress,” she said.

The Congress had on Sunday announced that it will not field candidates in constituencies of Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati and their close relatives and aides, in response to the SP and BSP not fielding candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

The Congress offer came a day ahead of Priyanka Gandhi’s three-day tour of UP, which started from Prayagraj on Monday. The UP east in charge for Congress took a steamer ride from Prayagraj to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi as part of her campaign tour.

The 140km ride lasted for about three days before culminating at a Holi Milan function in Varanasi.

Gandhi said she was here to make false promises. “We do what we promise like we waived off loan of farmers in all the states we formed our government recently. I have come here to listen to the problems of the people.”

In her address at Dumduma Ghat, Priyanka promised to have a separate ministry for fishermen. “After listening to your problems, I ensure you that once our government comes to power we will have a separate ministry for Fishermen of the country for their overall development,” she said.

On Sunday, Priyanka wrote in an open letter that “as a soldier of the Congress, it is my responsibility is to join hands with you for changing the current politics of Uttar Pradesh. The youth, farmers and working class are facing problems and we want to share their pain”.

During her day-long stay at Lucknow, Priyanka met delegations of potato farmers, Urdu teachers, Anganwadi workers and employee unions who have been strongly demanding the old pension scheme for government employees.