IN a move aimed at weaning away the Yadav vote base of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday visited the Yadav-dominated Harbans Khera village in Rae Bareli to highlight their plight.
On a two-day tour of her constituency, Sonia paid a surprise visit to the village and went inside the house of a farmer, Rakesh Yadav, and asked the women whether they had proper sanitation facilities, electricity, drainage and water supply.
Women from neighbouring houses, who also gathered there, said they had none of the facilities.
?They told me that this is a Yadav village. For all the central schemes, we send plenty of money to the state government, but you (the media) have seen the condition of this village. This village belongs to a particular community for which the state government should also take some responsibility,? Sonia said.
She said the Centre?s responsibility is to send funds, but the development work has to be done by the state government. Yadavs and Muslims are the traditional vote bank of the SP, and its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav often claims the state has worked a lot for the two communities.
