Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh pollscape heated up Thursday with Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Uma Bharti taking on each other in an aggressive battle of words.
Addressing a rally in Charkhari in Bundelkhand, from where Uma Bharti will contest the assembly elections, Gandhi said she was an outsider who had not done anything for the region.
“A BJP leader has come from Madhya Pradesh. Where was she when farmers were dying in Bundelkhand? Now that elections are here, she has come to you,” he said.
Uma Bharti, who has made a return to the BJP fold, was quick to react.
She told reporters in Lucknow that she was not an outsider and that she was confident of defeating the “guru-chela” (mentor-student) pair of Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh in the state.
“I am not an outsider, I am from Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi should remember the background of his mother before questioning his ‘bua’ (aunt),” she said, taking a potshot at the Congress leader.
“I would also like to remind him that in Madhya Pradesh, I made Digvijay Singh bite dust. Both metor and his disciple are present here in Uttar Pradesh as well, I will bring them to the same situation here as well,” she said.
Uma Bharti will contest the state assembly poll from Charkhari in Mahoba district of Bundelkhand. Elections to the state assembly are to be held in seven phases, begining Feb 8.
She said the special package announced for Bundelkhand was nowhere to be found.
“The special package for Bundelkhand has been siphoned. We are trying to find the package, but it is nowhere to be found,” she said.
Following Rahul Gandhi’s intervention, the central government two years back had sanctioned a Rs.7,000 crore package for the backward Bundelkhand, a region that straddles both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
IANS
