PM Modi's foreign tours do not benefit country: Sheila Dikshit

Congress chief ministerial candidate for Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls Sheila Dikshit on Sunday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his foreign tours, saying these did not benefit the country in any way.

“Most of the time our Prime Minister lives in foreign countries and makes news. But his visits do not benefit the country in any way...He has made a lot of promises during polls but they were not fulfilled,” Dikshit told Congress Seva Dal workers here.

Assembly elections in the state are due early next year and Congress has projected 78-year-old Dikshit, a Brahmin, as its Chief Minister face hoping to cash in on the community votes.

The Brahmin community, a traditional vote bank of Congress, had shifted allegiance to BJP in the aftermath of the Mandir-Mandal politics and a section in the party feels it should make efforts to win back the support of the community.

A large chunk of Brahmin votes had also gone to Mayawati’s BSP in the past when she gave tickets to many candidates belonging to the community.

The Brahmin’s support determines the poll outcome in several seats in central and eastern UP. Clarifying that she was born in Punjab but belonged to Unnao, as it was the place of her in-laws, the three-time Delhi Chief Minister said she had started her politics from Kannauj.

Highlighting her achievements as when she was the Chief Minister of Delhi, Dikshit said in her 15 years’ in power she tried to solve problems of Delhi and now she has came to UP with the same vision.

“Congress will deal with backwardness of the state during the past 27 years. When Congress used to rule UP, the state used to grab first and second slot and now the situation is well known to everyone,” she said.

Congress has been out of power for 27 years in Uttar Pradesh and is projecting that the state has gone from bad to worse in these years through a campaign, called ‘27 Saal, UP Behaal’.

Asked at a press conference later about the possibility of striking a pre or post-poll alliance, party leader Sanjay Singh said his party would ally only with the people and added that there were no talks on those lines.