Ahead of her visit to Rajasthan, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday attacked the BJP-led Centre, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last Assembly polls had promised to declare the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) a national project, but ignored the promise which has angered the people.
In a post on X, Priyanka Gandhi said, "During the last assembly elections of Rajasthan, the Prime Minister had promised to declare the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) as a national project."
She said, "Since then, the state government kept sending proposals again and again, (Chief Minister) Ashok Gehlot wrote a dozen letters to them, but the central government kept ignoring the problems of the people of Rajasthan. There is anger among the people of Rajasthan regarding this breach of promise.
"Today I will address the people of the state from Sikrai in Dausa district and seek their affection and blessings," she added.Priyanka Gandhi made the remarks ahead of her visit to the desert state where she will be addressing a public meeting in Dausa. On October 16, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge also hit out at the government over ERCP in Baran district, some 320 km from the state capital alleging that the Prime Minister had promised to aid the project, mentioning it at two places, during his rallies.
"But now he has conveniently forgotten about it. Nobody knows what happened to the aid. But the Congress is completing it with Rs 25,000 crore on its own,” Kharge had said."There are Central ministers from this state and 25 MPs from Rajasthan but nobody has raised any demands for the ERCP project. So Rajasthan got neither funds nor water,” he had added.Congress has been demanding a national status to the ERCP potable and irrigation water in 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan. The ECRP project will ease irrigation water problems over two lakh hectares in those 13 districts.
The Congress has turned ECRP into a poll issue, as it is likely to affect 83 Assembly seats in the districts of Ajmer, Alwar, Bharatpur, Baran, Bundi, Dholpur, Dausa, Jhalawar, Jaipur, Kota, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur and Tonk. The polling for the 200-member Assembly elections has been rescheduled to November 25 and the counting of votes will take place on December 3.