Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Saturday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Madhya Pradesh has only given 21 jobs in the past three years and that the youth of the State has to migrate due to lack of employment opportunities.
Ms. Vadra, addressing a public rally in Bundelkhand’s Damoh district, said, “So much migration happens from this region. People have to leave their families and move far away. Migration only happens when one doesn’t get work in their own area. But, do you know why you are not getting employment here?”
Accusing the BJP-led Central Government of selling several PSUs to “its industrialist friends for pennies”, Ms. Gandhi said that the PSUs now cannot generate employment.
“In the last three years, the M.P. Government has only given 21 jobs,” she claimed, adding that several positions in various government departments have been lying vacant.
Slamming the Centre for demonetisation and introducing GST, she said, “Small-scale industries and businesses are on the verge of shutting down while loans worth thousands of crores are being waived for big businesspersons. They are being handed the nation’s property.”
“When you ask for the Old Pension Scheme, the government says that it does not have money. If you don’t have money, how did you waive off hefty loans of big businesspersons like [Gautam] Adani ji? Where is that money coming from?” She questioned.
In an apparent attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader said that he “spent over ₹20,000 crore” on the beautification of the Parliament building, which “was in good shape”, referring to the Central Vista project of the Modi government.
“You spent ₹27,000 crore on making one big hall in Delhi,” she said.
Ms. Gandhi, however, did not name Mr. Modi in her speech. On Thursday, the Election Commission had issued her a notice for allegedly violating the model code of conduct with some of her remarks on Mr. Modi.
Ms. Gandhi reiterated the Congress’s promises for the November 17 Assembly election in the State such as caste-based survey, implementing OPS, providing gas cylinder at ₹500, and increased rates of wheat and rice crops.
An impoverished and drought-prone region, Bundelkhand in M.P. has 26 Assembly constituencies across Sagar, Damoh, Chhatarpur, Panna, Datia, and Tikamgarh districts. In the 2018 Assembly election, the Bharatiya Janata Party had bagged 14 while the Congress won 10 seats. One seat each went to the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. A significant portion of Bundelkhand also falls under Uttar Pradesh.
