Priyanka Gandhi holds roadshow in Assam's Silchar for Congress candidate Sushmita Dev

She slammed the Narendra Modi government for withdrawal of special status to Assam which the erstwhile Congress government had given.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi with party Lok Sabha candidate Susmita Deb L takes part in a roadshow during the ongoing general elections at Silchar Assam on Sunday. (Photo | PTI)
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi with party Lok Sabha candidate Susmita Deb L takes part in a roadshow during the ongoing general elections at Silchar Assam on Sunday. (Photo | PTI)

GUWAHATI: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday held a roadshow at Silchar in Southern Assam’s Barak Valley to seek the support of voters for party candidate Sushmita Dev who is the president of All India Mahila Congress.

Gandhi said she had come to Assam for Dev who resembles her grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in her determination and spirits.

“Sushmita is always there to speak up for you…You have the power to choose and decide who is a good leader and who is not,” she told a crowd during the roadshow.

She slammed the Narendra Modi government for withdrawal of special status to Assam which the erstwhile Congress government had given. She was also critical of the PM for frequently visiting foreign countries but not his constituency Varanasi. 

“Modiji has a lot of time to visit America, Africa, Japan and other countries but he doesn’t have even five minutes’ time to visit his constituency Varanasi,” Gandhi said.

The Congress candidate Dev is battling anti-incumbency. She also finds herself in trouble as her party has taken a stand against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which, if passed in Parliament, will lead to granting of Indian citizenship to immigrants belonging to six “persecuted” non-Muslim communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated till December 31, 2014. 

The Barak Valley, which accounts for two of Assam’s 14 Parliamentary seats, has a large population of Bengali Hindus and various Bengali groups and organisations insist the people there, who missed out on National Register of Citizens (NRC), should be protected through the passage of Citizenship Bill as they were the victims of partition of India. In the Assamese-majority Brahmaputra Valley, the people, however, stand opposed to the Bill for the fear that “two crore” Bengali Hindus will migrate from Bangladesh and it will wipe off of the Assamese and other indigenous communities.

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