Congress, SP main contenders in UP polls: Digvijay

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh today said that Congress and Samajwadi Party (SP) are the main contenders in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, as the ruling “BSP is involved in corruption, while BJP is nowhere in the picture.” “Congress is going to form the government in Uttar Pradesh, as the main contest there is between Congress and Samajwadi Party,” Digvijay told reporters in Bhopal. “BSP is involved neck-deep in corruption, while BJP is nowhere in Uttar Pradesh. Therefore, the main contest is between SP and Congress,” he added. He was speaking to reporters after paying a homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary at the Old Vidhan Sabha. [caption id=“attachment_197590” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“IBNLive”] [/caption] Commenting on SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav’s promise of giving government jobs to ’educated’ rape victims, Digvijay only said that according to the Supreme Court guidelines, the identity of such victims cannot be disclosed. Digivijay arrived in Bhopal last night via Indore and left for Lucknow today after meeting state party chief Kantilal Bhuria and Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh. The senior Congress leader also dubbed as nautanki (drama) the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s announcement of observing a maun vrat (vow of silence) against the Centre for allegedly overlooking State’s interests. He said that Congress leaders in the state would also observe silence in reply to the chief minister’s maun vrat to highlight problems faced by people of the state like corruption. “Congress leaders will observe a maun vrat to awaken the conscience of the state Lokayukta, so that raids can be conducted against corrupt ministers and other bigwigs and not just against lower rank officials,” Digvijay said. “The opposition will also identify those ministers who have earned big since 2003 and expose them during the maun vrat,” he said adding that the Lokayukta should probe their assets. Bhuria later announced that on February 2, his party would observe a maun vrat over “BJP’s failures”. PTI