Mayawati should be thankful to Rahul Gandhi: Congress

Hitting back at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for her recent remarks against Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Pradeep Kumar Jain Aditya Sunday asked her to give up her diatribe against the Congress general secretary and "set her own house in order".

Aditya also flayed the BSP supremo for her criticism of Gandhi's frequent visits to remote parts of the state.

"Be it the impoverished Bundelkhand, or Bhatta-Parsaul villages near Noida which had been seething over faulty land acquisition policy of the state government and police atrocities on protesters, relief to the aggrieved people has always followed his (Gandhi's) visits," he claimed.

"Mayawati should be thankful to Gandhi's efforts without which the resentment against her government would have been more intense and difficult to control...She must give up her diatribe against Gandhi and set her own house in order," the Congress MP from Jhansi said.

He was here in connection with Rahul's rally tomorrow, which would mark the formal commencement of the party's campaign for the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Lashing out at Rahul Gandhi, the Chief Minister had yesterday said that instead of indulging in "vote-bank politics" and expressing his anger against the state government, he should vent his ire at the Central government.

Aditya came down heavily on the Mayawati government for "large-scale bungling" of MNREGA funds and also for "atrocities" committed against farmers.

"People from all walks of life in UP are suffering. The farmers have been the worst-hit. There has been a large-scale bungling of funds given by the Centre for MNREGA," the Union Minister of State for Rural Development alleged, adding, "Farmers have been subjected to all sorts of atrocities in the state."

Aditya said the people of the state were "fed up with the disgrace brought to UP by successive non-Congress governments" and had "immense affection" for Gandhi and "looked up to him for a better future".

He also expressed displeasure over the Mayawati government's "indifference" towards maintenance of statues installed in the memory of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

"It is shameful that the Chief Minister squanders so much money on erecting her own statues while she is still alive, her government has been insensitive towards memorials associated with luminaries like Nehru, perhaps because of their association with Congress," he alleged.