Priyanka Gandhi is visiting Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram, and Thrissur as part of her campaign in Kerala. She will be campaigning for the first time in South India with an election rally and corner meetings scheduled for her in Kerala with meetings and rallies scheduled for meetings scheduled for her in Kerala on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Congress is working on obtaining power in Kerala, where it swept the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by winning 15 out of 20 seats. Congress-led UDF earlier released its manifesto, promises 500,000 homes to the poor, 5 kg free rice to all-white cardholders, and has hiked the social security pension to Rs 2,500 from the present Rs 1600, among a host of other promises.
A special law to protect the traditions of the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple and a Peace and Harmony department on the model of Rajasthan has also been promised by the UDF.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Indian politician and the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee in charge of Uttar Pradesh hit out at the Pinarayi-led LDF government in Kerala saying that the party’s “communist manifesto” was in fact a “corporate manifesto” and that they did not keep their promises while addressing a public rally in Kollam, after arriving from Karunagapally to support Congress candidates Bindu Krishna and PC Vishwanath for the Kollam and Kundara constituencies.
She said that many young Congress workers were being killed in Kerala, but instead of taking action against the perpetrators, the government has spent a huge amount to protect the accused. The government also lathi-charged students who raised legitimate demands like the correct implementation of reservation, she said. She also said, “They have ignored the idea of your rights, your equality, and put in the idea of favoritism.”
Poking at the Pinarayi government over the gold smuggling case that unfolded over the last year during which many CPM members were investigated, she said that the Pinarayi government failed to recognize the real gold of Kerala, its people.
She said, “Instead, they were interested in foreign gold and gold smuggling, or in giving fishing contracts to multinational companies,” referring to the Kerala government’s deep-sea trawling deal with American company EMCC International that caught Fisheries Minister Mercykutty Amma in a row with fishermen earlier this year.
Naming the Kerala government “almost fascist”, the Congress leader said, “When you try to raise your voice against it, it tries to suppress it… when you question the frauds of the government, the CM answers that he doesn’t know what’s going on.” Hitting out at the recent corruption scandals against the Kerala government, she said that the people were witnessing the “politics of fear, of frauds.”
Her campaign coincides with PM Modi’s Kerala rally and she also hit out at the BJP government for talking of protecting only during election season:
“And now that there is an election in Kerala HM Amit Shah is busy giving hollow statements about protecting nuns from harassment. Really?
With reference to the BJP on the recent incident where nuns were harassed and arrested in a train, by men with BJP links: she said, “Which political party runs the government that enables these goons to harass and demand personal details of young women commuting on a train? BJP.
Which political party do these goons belong to? BJP.
Which party’s student wing are some of them members of? BJP.
Priyanka said that in this election, the people of Kerala are going to choose between three different types of politics. First, the politics of the CPM, which is the politics of violence, state repression, and scam; second, the politics of the BJP, which spreads hate and divisiveness; and third, the politics of the Congress, which is building a future for Kerala.
Priyanka Gandhi had been mainly campaigning in Uttar Pradesh in the past and this season is her first steps out of UP.
Eravipuram, Chathannur and Kundara are her other stops during her campaign in Kollam.
She is to take a chopper ride to Kottarakkara where she will campaign for UDF candidates in Pathanapuram, Punalur, and Chadayamangalam.
She will then return to Thiruvananthapuram district where her first stop is at Venjaramoodu.
The Congress leader is also set to campaign in Thiruvananthapuram’s Nemom, the lone BJP constituency in Kerala.
Chief Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Parliament member from Kerala’s Wayanad has also been campaigning extensively in Kerala. The Congress holds a daunting challenge to the ruling Left Democratic Front.
It is anticipated that Priyanka Gandhi will likely focus on corner meetings like Rahul Gandhi for a more direct connection with voters. She will speak at one public rally. Priyanka Gandhi, one of the star campaigners of the party, and she campaigned earlier in another poll-bound state, Assam. Kerala is going to the polls on April 2.
The outcome of the Kerala elections will be very defining Rahul Gandhi in leveraging his position in the Congress ahead of the pivotal organizational elections in June.
Senior Congress leaders have said that Priyanka’s resolve to campaign in Kerala signifies the intensity in which Congress is taking on this campaign to land the Congress in a sweeping win in Kerala.
With her role of empathy to the poor, the aged, outreach to struggling women, the helpless, and suffering masses, this picture won hearts.
Also Read: PRIYANKA GANDHI OFFERS PRAYERS AT AATTUKAL DEVI TEMPLE
No words needed. ❤️@priyankagandhi Ji visiting an Old Age home at Marthoma Episcopal Jubilee Mandiram. #CongressForIndia pic.twitter.com/U7DLbBwGr9
— Saral Patel (@SaralPatel) March 30, 2021