Mayawati dubs Congress' promise for girl students as 'electoral gimmick' ahead of UP polls

On Friday, BSP supremo Mayawati came down heavily on the Congress party for its promises to girl students ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election. A day earlier, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced that all Class 12 pass girls will get smartphones while those who have cleared graduation shall get an electric scooty if her party forms a government in the state. The manifesto committee of the Sonia Gandhi-led party took this decision after some girl students raised these demands in interaction with Vadra on October 20.

Taking to Twitter, Mayawati remarked, "Congress has started making various kinds of lucrative promises like BJP and SP as a part of electoral gimmicks. In this context, this party has talked about giving smartphones and scooters to the passed out girl students if the government is formed in UP. But The basic question is, who can trust them and how?" 

Moreover, the former UP CM claimed that people will not repose faith in these poll promises because the Congress governments in Rajasthan and Punjab had failed to fulfill them. Taking a dig at Congress, she opined that the party is in the decline as it cheated the people and breached promises. According to her, BJP too would face the repercussions as the people are grappling with inflation, poverty and unemployment prevailing in the country despite PM Modi's promise of 'achhe din' (good days). 

Big announcement by Congress

Earlier this week, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra declared that 40% of the total poll tickets in the upcoming UP polls will be allocated to women. This comes at a juncture when the Women's Reservation Bill which aims to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies is pending for several years. When questioned on whether she would contest the Assembly election and be the CM face, Vadra revealed that Congress was yet to take a decision in this regard. 

Explaining the thought process behind this decision, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remarked, "If it (proportion of tickets allocated to women) increases here, it will increase at the national level too. I am the UP in-charge. We have taken a decision here with everyone's consent. The rationale for this is that women are not coming together to become a force. They are being divided into caste and religion. The political parties feel that they can women happy by giving a gas cylinder of Rs.2000. But the struggle of women is a very long one."