New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) The Congress will pay special attention to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the mass contact programme it has launched, party chief Sonia Gandhi has said.
‘The Congress party has launched mass contact programme in the country with special attention being paid to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,’ she said, in her letter to party workers in the latest issue of party mouthpiece ‘Congress Sandesh’.
Assembly polls are due in Bihar later this year and the Congress has decided to contest the elections on its own. In Uttar Pradesh, the Congress is making a bid to emerge as the main challenger to the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the state elections due in 2012.
In her letter, Gandhi said it was the duty of party workers to ensure that all schemes of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government were fully implemented at the grassroots.
Party workers must concentrate on reaching out to the people particularly in the rural and remote parts of the country so that ‘Congress party’s focus on the common man genuinely addresses their needs’.
She said the workers can become vehicles of success in social development programmes and take the lead in exposing any loopholes or corruption.
Congratulating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA for successfully completing one year in office, Gandhi said that the alliance has worked hard to fulfill the ‘strong mandate’ it received in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
‘The synergy between the government and the Congress party has enabled us to cover much ground with regard to the promises made in the election manifesto,’ she said.
Emphasising the party’s goal of inclusive development, she said that it was only by ensuring that the largest number of people benefit from high growth will India strengthen itself internally and externally.
Listing Right to Education Bill and passage of women’s reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha as among the significant legislations of UPA in its second tenure, Gandhi said the government was keenly monitoring implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Right to Information.