•SEEMA CHISHTI: After the UPA’s victory in the general elections, what are the immediate priorities of the government?

One of the major challenges we face today is that our service delivery mechanisms are very inefficient. What is provided for does not reach the beneficiaries. This is one area we must pay more attention to although service delivery in a federal system is mostly with the state government. For example, huge sums are spent on subsidising food grains but that does not reach the BPL beneficiaries or the really needy. Also, the Prime Minister for the first time is setting up a cell to monitor delivery mechanisms. I have always believed that people are solutions, they are the best medium to implement government programmes and policies.

•SEEMA CHISHTI: Tell us about your UP experience during the recent elections?

I was made party in charge of UP after the disastrous Assembly elections. We have been out of power in UP since 1989 and so the organisation had collapsed. People who had grassroots support either went to the BSP or the SP. It was a challenging task. We chose 35 viable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and we hinted that they could go ahead and start work, alliance or no alliance. We then wove the organisation around these candidates. Of the 35 candidates we chose, 18 won. Mr Rahul Gandhi was very keen that we build up our own party—how long can one walk on crutches? The whole effort has been to build the party. We had discussions with Samajwadi Party (SP). We tried to negotiate but that did not come off. People were fed up of regional parties, be it SP or BSP. I thought that the ground reality favoured Congress and we had nothing to lose—we had only nine Lok Sabha seats. So we might as well take a risk. It paid off.

... contd.