Most of the ministers have been camping in their constituencies listening to peoples complaints SINCE the partys debacle in the Assembly elections earlier this year,the UP unit of the Congress remained completely inactive. There were neither small nor big campaigns launched by the party on any major issue and most of the state leaders kept waiting for the organisational changes to take place. But for the last few days,some of the leaders have suddenly become active,particularly after there were murmurs of a reshuffle in the Union Cabinet. Suddenly we find that Congress MPs,especially the ministers,have become active in their respective parliamentary constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election,the people of the state elected 22 Congress MPs,of whom six were made ministers in the UPA-II government as a reward for the partys shot-in-the-arm success. However,three years later the party performed poorly in the Assembly election despite rigorous campaigning by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi. For the debacle,MPs and ministers were blamed for not being active in their constituencies. In their defence,most of the ministers and MPs had then said that they were not consulted during the selection of the candidates in their constituencies. But now with talks of a cabinet reshuffle in the air,these leaders have started devoting a good amount of their time in their constituencies listening to peoples grievances. Some of the MPs had avoided visiting their constituencies after the Assembly election. But in the last few weeks,most of them are seen often in their constituencies trying to address the problems of the people, said a senior party leader. Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain Aditya was in Lalitpur in Bundelkhand for the last few days. Sources said that a Dhaulpur to Delhi express train has been given a stoppage at Lalitpur after his intervention. Aditya was scheduled to be present during the trains debut halt at Lalitpur. Union Minister of State for Road,Highways and Transport Jitin Prasada has been actively raising the issue of floods in his constituency Dhaurara. Two flood-affected regions,Sitapur and Lakhimpur Khiri,fall in his constituency. He was in his constituency on August 15,16,17 and before that he had visited the flood-affected areas in the last week of July. Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas RPN Singh also did not prefer to remain behind. He too has been camping in his constituency Kushi Nagar. Last week,Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid was in his constituency,Farrukhabad,to lay the foundation of a 660 MW power plant. Meanwhile,Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal is spending the weekends in his constituency Kanpur where he is holding a kind of a janata durbar to hear peoples grievances. Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma,who on Monday sparked off a controversy saying the 2014 elections will be between Rahul and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi,has started giving time to his constituency,Gonda. However,his visits to Lucknow and Barabanki are more often. Sources said he had expressed his desire to contest from some other constituency in the next Lok Sabha election but has instead been asked by the party high-command to concentrate on Gonda first.
