Rahul demands a change in Indian political scene

Virtually launching the Congress campaign for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in 2012 on the symbolic day of B.R. Ambeskar’s birth anniversary, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi called upon the youth of the state to come forward to “change the political culture’’.

Saying that it was time to move forward from the caste-communal politics of past decades, Rahul Gandhi did what he has been doing in rest of the country, invited the youth to attach themselves to his bandwagon for change.


His clarion call fitted with the Congress programe at hand. He was flagging off the party’s Chetna Yatra (awareness drive) to 10 districts of UP to break BSP Chief Minister Mayawati’s stranglehold on the Dalit votebank in the state - a crucial segment in the Congress’ revival plan.

“I’m confident that with the support of the youth, the Congress party will rewrite the destiny of this state which will experience a new era of development and employment,’’ Rahul grandly announced.

Quite charged up by the crowd which gathered to hear him in the scorching heat, Rahul continued, the Congress would take the state of UP back to its pristine position in the country.

“It has been left behind by other states in the last 20-25 years,’’ he said, adding that the most important question is how to remove poverty.

“In UP, the elections will be fought on this issue with the help of the youth.’’ However, there was a surprise that he did not utter a word about how he was stopped from garlanding an Ambedkar statue in Ambedkar Nagar, before he addressed the rally. He took on Mayawati more on the development issues.

The youth icon did not seek to make use of the symbolism of the day by unveiling a package for the Dalits in the state. His focus was only youth.