Congress General Secretary Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra flagged off three ‘Pratigya Yatras’ from Barabanki on October 23, 2021, to take to the people various resolutions adopted by the party ahead of the assembly elections 2022.

Here are the highlights of the address of Smt. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, General Secretary, AICC at the public gathering to launch ‘Pratigya Yatra’ at Barabanki Uttar Pradesh. Sisters and brothers and all the leaders present here, Punia ji, Rakesh Sachan ji, Naseemuddin ji, Nirmal Khatri ji, Pradeep Jain ji, Ajay Lallu ji, Mona ji, Supriya ji, you are all welcome here. I have come here to tell you about the promises to be made by the Congress Party. Because a yatra is starting from here, for which all our leaders will take out four different yatras in the whole of Uttar Pradesh for 10 days, out of which three are starting today. One will leave here from Barabanki, so I have come here to initiate it and to tell all of you what our promises are.

Our first promise – 40 percent share in tickets for women, smartphones and scooties for girls and girl students.

Second promise- The entire loan of farmers will be waived. Third promise - Wheat-paddy for Rs. 2,500 and farmers will get sugarcane at Rs 400. Fourth promise- electricity bill will be halved for all and dues of Corona period will be waived. Fifth promise- We will do away with the financial strain caused by Corona and will give 25,000 to every family. Last promise - Government employment to 20 lakh people. Now I want to explain to you a little bit about them. See, as far as women’s participation is concerned, I have said it before and reiterate that until women themselves do not come forward, until there is full women participation in politics; Till then, we will never be able to overcome the problems that my sisters fight with everyday, the struggles they face, the situations which they combat and move forward. I urge all women, my sisters to come forward and join politics. In this election, Congress party, by giving 40 percent tickets, wants you to go ahead to fight your own battle and become capable.

We will issue a separate manifesto for women that will be released in a few weeks. All the different announcements we have to make for women will find their place in it. One of the announcements there is that the 12th pass girls will be given a smartphone; If our government comes to power then those girls who are graduates, they will be given e-scooty. Now they would say that this is a gift being given because they want votes, but this is absolutely wrong. It is not a gift. It is a medium, a means by which you can be empowered. Today, women protect themselves through smartphones and those girls who are studying, those who have to go for jobs, the e-scooties will be of great convenience to them. This is just a first pledge, but the rest of the pledges for women will be there in our manifesto, which we will release in a week.

The farmer is greatly upset today. You all must have seen how in Lakhimpur Kheri, the son of a minister of Modi Ji’s ministry killed 6 farmers by mowing them down brutally by his car. This is such an accident which is awakening the consciousness of the whole country as to how much importance has been given to the farmers by this government. How long it took them to arrest the one who crushed the farmers and till date, his father who kept saving his neck up till now, is still working in the ministry of Modi ji. He has not been dismissed. But this is just one example. Farmers know how many problems they have been facing since few years and they are also not being heard in the government. So, for the farmers we have decided that we will waive your loans.

You know that the Congress party had earlier waived off loans worth Rs. 72,000 crores. You all know the problems you are facing. You don’t get the appropriate price for paddy. Urea has become expensive. Fertilizer has become expensive. You have to pay huge electricity bills and it becomes difficult to earn. You are being engulfed by debt, so we have decided that your loans will be waived off. Along with this, the way our government is buying paddy in Chhattisgarh for Rs. 2,500, in the same way we will buy wheat and paddy here for Rs. 2,500 and you will get Rs. 400 for sugarcane. When we are talking about electricity bill here, then during the Corona period, those who were small shopkeepers, small businesses, traders, whose business, whose work had come to a halt, they had to pay huge electricity bills even then and they couldn’t earn during that period. That’s why we have decided that whatever electricity bills you paid during the Corona period, we will waive them off. Everyone’s electricity bill will also be halved. Along with this, there were many poor families who suffered a lot financially during the Corona period, who were not able to earn, who were not able to go out to earn their livelihood; For them we have decided that Rs. 25,000 will be given to them.

We want to give government employment to 20 lakh people, but in this regard, I want to say specifically that in the last two years I have met many contract workers, those who work on contract, and all of them told me their problems. Included in the list are teachers, there are health workers, there are many people working and they have been completely exploited, so especially I want to say that we have decided to regularize them. If our government comes to power, we will regularize everyone.

These are our main promises. Through this yatra, these promises will travel village-to-village and we will convey them to the people. We will tell the people why we took these decisions and how we will be able to fulfill these decisions. Thank you all for your participation in this journey. Jai Hind. Jai Kisan.