With the oil-for-food scandal exposing chinks in the Congress armour and Mulayam Singh Yadav and his friends in the Left waiting to extend the turf battle, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today opened a battle front in Uttar Pradesh. At a public meeting near Amethi she indicated that the days of the state government were clearly numbered.Maahaul badle baghair poore pradesh ki taraqqi nahin ho sakti, hame ummeed hai aane waale dinon mein maahaul badlega, sudhhaar hoga (the state cannot progress without affecting a change in environment, we are hopeful that in the coming days environment will change, reform will take place), was how Sonia set out her political agenda at an unlikely venue — the inauguration of free medical camp on Lifeline Express at Nihalgarh railway station.Nihalgarh is in Jagdishpur assembly segment of Amethi parliamentary constituency represented by Rahul Gandhi. Rahul was also present. Sonia’s outburst against the state government has to be seen in the background of the forthcoming ‘‘Swatantra videsh niti apnao desh bachao’’ convention of the Samajwadi Party and the Left in Lucknow on November 13, where a fresh initiative would be taken to form the Third Front.For, continuing with her tirade against the Mulayam government, Sonia went on: ‘‘Janata ki bhalai se zyaada unko (Mulayam) apni rajniti ki chinta hai (more than people’s welfare they were more interested in personal politics).’’ She was referring to the poor state of development in Amethi and Rae Bareli, from where she is the MP, but expanded the ambit to the whole of UP.‘‘Whatever development works have been done here have been due to the efforts of the Congress Party (read Central government), but the picture becomes more blurred when UP as a whole is seen,’’ she said.Though the UPA chairperson admitted that resource crunch was a constraint, however, she did not hesitate to mention that ‘‘political compulsions’’ overshadowed other considerations.
