JULY 21- Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi is in favour of seeking people’s views in formulating the party’s manifesto for Lok Sabha election, a move the BJP ridiculed saying the electorate want a Congress-free country.
Sources said that in one of the closed-door meetings with party leaders recently, Gandhi said the party must incorporate what the people want in the manifesto and it should be finalised by seeking their views and not by sitting in offices.
“It should have the involvement of people,” Gandhi is learnt to have said.
Asked about Gandhi’s views expressed in a recent meeting, a senior party leader said that Gandhi has taken this stand for a long time now and has been expressing it in a number of internal party meetings.
“After all manifestos are for the people. So it is very logical that we take their views,” a party leader said.
The leader had spoken on similar lines in his first speech after his elevation as Congress Vice President during the Jaipur conclave in January.
But BJP was not impressed with this suggestion by Gandhi and quipped that the overwhelming opinion among the masses is to remove the Congress from power.
“If Congress goes to the people they will only say enough is enough. People want the Congress to go and BJP to come to power. They have no hopes from the Congress. It has only given us price rise, corruption, scams and nothing else,” BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Hussain, who was appointed a member of BJP’s manifesto committee, said Congress failed to get the Lokpal Bill passed in the last nine years, reduce prices and check corruption.
“The Congress does what it wants. It does not care for the people. BJP will come out with a responsible manifesto as it is set to come to power,” he claimed.
INDIA TODAY
