India needs a new vision, start from Uttar Pradesh, says Rahul Gandhi

“Our understanding and our belief is that India needs a new vision. For new vision of India, you start from Uttar Pradesh,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, while releasing the party’s youth manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections along with party general secretary and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

The Congress released its youth manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, promising to solve a number of issues related to youth, including unemployment, in its vision document for India’s most populous state.

Sharpening his attack on the BJP, Rahul Gandhi said, “Forget job creation, today the youth has lost jobs. This is because all the work is being given to 2-3 industrialists. So, the Congress has decided after speaking to the youth of Uttar Pradesh, as to how we can create jobs for you.”

Rahul Gandhi claimed that if the Congress comes to power in the state, they will try to solve the problems of the youth. He claimed that 880 youths lose jobs every hour in the state and 16 lakh youths have lost employment. “We want to create new UP. Youth is our strength,” he said.

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The Gandhi siblings released the party’s vision document at the Congress headquarters in Delhi.

The Congress, which has been reduced to a virtual non-player in the state over the past years, is going to the polls with youth and women in focus. The party has announced that it will reserve 40 per cent of tickets for women in Uttar Pradesh.

In the 2017 assembly election when the Congress contested 114 seats in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, it scored its lowest tally of seven seats with a vote share of 6 per cent.
But, that was also an election in which every other party hit the trough in the BJP wave.

There are signs that this election in Uttar Pradesh may be more competitive than the last one. By concentrating its campaign primarily on youth and women, the Congress may be able to increase its base this time.

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This time the party has already released a list of 125 candidates and, according to news reports, plans to contest all the 403 seats in the state. The party’s vote share has been hovering below 8 percent since 1996 – apart from 2012 when it went up to 11 per cent.

Uttar Pradesh will go to polls in seven phases between February 10 and March 7, with results being declared on March 10.