New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday vowed to make Uttar Pradesh the number one state in India and expressed confidence that under Sheila Dikshit the state will usher in a new era of development.


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We will fight together and make UP the number one state. Party will fight with a plan. If Congress party stands together and if it hears the voice of its workers then no one can beat us, Rahul Gandhi made these remarks in Lucknow.


While interacting with his party workers at the Ramabai Ambedkar Ground here, Rahul highlighted the alleged misrule by several parties during the past 27 years.


 


 


''During the past 27 years, several parties ruled the state but no one succeeded in changing its face. We want the state to reach the top spot. We will make that happen,'' he added.


In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader said rising inflation and high cost of essential commodities has made the lives of common people miserable.


''When a farmer sells his pulses, Modi ji gives him Rs 50 but when the same farmer buys his own pulses from the market he has to pay Rs 200,'' Gandhi said.


The Congress vice president also took a jibe at the Centre's bullet train project, saying it will not bring any relief for the common man as the cost of travelling in it would be very high.


Modi ji promised bullet trains, tickets of which will be not less than Rs 15,000. Only Modi ji and his suited-booted friends will travel in it, Rahul Gandhi said.


The Gandhi scion, however, praised veteran Congress leader Sheila Dikshit, who has been officially  
named the party's chief ministerial candidate for 2017 UP assembly polls.


We made Sheila ji the CM candidate of UP because we want her to fight for women. Sheila ji changed Delhi and brought development. People of Delhi give credit to Congress for changing the face of the state. I am confident that she will change UP too, Rahul added.


Besides Rahul, other senior Congress leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sheila Dikshit, Raj Babar etc  will interact with the party workers in what would be a four-hour-long interactive session to energise the cadre for the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.


This is the first major interactive session by Rahul after Congress launched the party’s election campaign by flagging off the “27 Saal - UP behaal” yatra in New Delhi early this month.


A 10-feet high open podium was erected to give a wider visibility to Rahul and other senior leaders at the Ramabai Ambedkar Ground where about 50,000 party workers gathered from different districts.


Rahul’s march to Raj Bhawan after the programme, however, was cancelled for denial of permission for security reasons.


Babbar, along with party’s campaign committee chairman Sanjay Singh, had visited the venue and reviewed the arrangements.


Registration for the same started about 9 am. In all, 30 control rooms and 90 registration desks were set up to enable smooth registration process.