Congress tries to douse flare up,local leaders will handle it,says Joshi

So,even as PWD Minister Naseemudin Siddiqui,who had inaugurated the bridge through a remote in Lucknow on Wednesday,visited the spot in UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s constituency on Thursday and named the bridge after BSP icon Dr B R Ambedkar,state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi said her party has no plans to launch a statewide protest on the issue.

She only condemned the state government’s action.

“It is an issue which the local Congress will deal with,” Joshi said and added that the bridge over Ganga at Dalmau “was a result of Sonia Gandhi’s efforts — a fact that will not change whatever Chief Minister Mayawati tries to do”.

Accompanied by Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari,Joshi condemned the state government’s act of preventing Union minister R P N Singh from visiting the bridge for an inspection on Wednesday,a day before the scheduled inauguration.

Joshi said the work on the bridge was started in 2004 when the BSP was not in power in the state. She even quoted a letter from the then Union Surface Transport Minister T R Balu,informing Sonia Gandhi about the Centre’s decision to build the bridge.

“As per rules for performing bhoomi poojan or any other ceremony regarding Centrally-funded projects,the Centre has to be informed at least three months in advance. But this was ignored by UP government,” said Joshi.

In Rae Bareli,hundreds of Congress workers led by district unit president Uma Shankar Mishra,Sonia Gandhi’s representative K L Sharma and Congress MLAs from Rae Bareli and Amethi tried to reach Dalmau where the PWD minister was scheduled to inaugurate it again. They were,however,prevented from going to Dalmau.

“We were stopped on the way and detained for over three hours,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh,UPCC spokesperson.

He said the arrested party workers were taken to a government college which has been converted into a makeshift jail.

The bridge,which connects Dalmau sub-division of Rae Bareli district with Fatehpur,will benefit about 600 villages. With the coming up of this bridge they won’t have to make a 30-km detour to cross the river.

The bridge also provides a shorter access from Rae Bareli to Chitrakoot,Banda and Allahabad.

Meanwhile,BSP sources said that a determined Chief Minister Mayawati wants to send out a clear message to her Dalit supporters that she is not afraid to take on Sonia Gandhi directly in her very own constituency.

Since the Lok Sabha elections,there have been signs that a section of Dalits were tilting towards the Congress. Mayawati’s message is for those Dalits who may be in a double mind or have doubts about the BSP,said party sources.

In the past,state BSP president and Panchayat Minister Swami Prasad Maurya,who accompanied Siddiqui,has represented Dalmau constituency in the Assembly.