L F gets a lashing

Statesman News Service

MALDA/RAIGANJ, April 28: The Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi began by acknowledging ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury’s contributions while addressing an election rally at the South Malda College ground in the Kaliachak Assembly constituency today. At the same time, the UPA chairperson did not hesitate to take on the Left Front government’s failures. Mrs Gandhi described the late leader as an architect of Malda. “His contribution to the party was immense and he was nicknamed “Malda” for his attachment to the district he represented,” Mrs Gandhi said. She called upon the people to vote generously for the Congress candidates of Malda to pay tribute to Khan Choudhury. Mrs Gandhi also suggested that her partymen follow his ideology. Although the Left Front has supported the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre from the outside, Mrs Gandhi criticised the former’s “poor governance” in West Bengal. “It was during the tenure of the Congress that West Bengal had progressed. Despite ruling the state for nearly three decades, the Left Front has failed to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Bengal,” she said. Mrs Gandhi wondered why the menace of unemployment and poor law and order persist in West Bengal. “The UPA government has never turned down any demand by the West Bengal government. Still the state has plenty of problems,” she said. Regarding the perennial problem of flood and erosion in the Malda and Murshidabad districts, she said the UPA government had formed a special task force to look into the matter. Later, at Kaliyaganj in North Dinajpur, where Mrs Gandhi addressed another election rally, a 60,000-strong crowd greeted the Congress supremo, reports our correspondent from Raiganj. Defying scorching heat, people waited through out the day to listen to Mrs Gandhi. Around 3.45 p.m., Mrs Gandhi, accompanied by AICC general secretary, Mrs Margaret Alva, reached the Kaliyaganj College ground amid thunderous applause by the crowd. Just like she did in Kaliachak earlier in the day, Mrs Gandhi rapped the state government at Kaliyaganj, too. She accused the Left Front government of ruining the interests of the people. “The state government has been running with a deficit of Rs 12,000 crore despite getting all sorts of help from the Centre,” Mrs Gandhi said. Union parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, was also present on the dais when Mrs Gandhi addressed the rally and urged the people to make the Congress candidates victorious.