Political parties in Uttar Pradesh seem to be thinking up new ways every now and then to woo voters. Some may not be working — like people stealing cots from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's Khat Sabha during his Kisan Yatra — while others, like a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader offering women saree and blouse, might just work.
The SP leader named Subhash Pasi — who is an MLA from the Saidpur constituency in the Ghazipur district of UP — has reportedly distributed sarees and blouses to women in his constituency to get them to attend a rally in the district to be addressed by Chief Minister and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav.
According to local reports, Pasi also told the women if they wore the sarees to Akhilesh's rally, they would be given umbrellas, lunch packs and money to tailor the blouse pieces they had received with the sarees.
This seems akin to the promises made by local Congress leaders made to people in order to get them to attend the Khat Sabha that was to be addressed by Rahul Gandhi in Mirzapur as part of his Kisan Yatra across Uttar Pradesh. The result was that when people did not get the clothes or other things they were promised, they ran away with the cots, or khatiyas, that the Congress had brought to the location on rent.
Meanwhile, Akhilesh expanded his Cabinet on Monday, doling out ministerial births to 10 people. While seven of them got Cabinet ranks, three were ministers of state. Among those who were inducted was Gayatri Prajapati, who had been sacked over the feud between Akhilesh and his uncle Shivpal.
