Pro-Modi slogans at Priyanka’s UP temple run

Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh), March 19 (IANS) Pro-Modi slogans were raised by BJP supporters gathered outside a temple near here on Tuesday as Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi reached a temple here.

As Gandhi got out of her car outside the Vindhyavasini Devi Temple, eight kilometres from here, hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers started shouting slogans hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The slogan shouting continued even as Gandhi entered the temple to pray. Most of the people in the crowd were regular worshippers, who were stopped from entering the temple given the VIP protocol.

Even shops and other establishments near the temple had to down their shutters, which led to the gathering of an angry mob, who shouted: "Har Har Modi".

Clad in a red sari, the eastern Uttar Pradesh in-charge of the Congress, who spent some 20 minutes praying at the temple, however, remained unperturbed.

As the sloganeering continued, she drove off to offer a chadar at the Kantit Sharief dargah near by.

There was a huge crowd outside the mosque waiting to meet her. Most had arrived at 7 a.m., they claimed.

Earlier in the day she attacked Modi saying no one was happy with his government. Demanding to know what Modi had done in the last five years, Gandhi told the media in Bhadohi: "Be it farmers, youth or anybody, no one is satisfied with the government. Together they will change the government this year."

The younger sibling of party chief Rahul Gandhi is on a three-day boat ride on the Ganga as part of the Lok Sabha election campaign that will end on Wednesday in Varanasi, Modi's parliamentary constituency.

Gandhi began the day after offering prayers at the Sita Samahit Sthal temple in Sitamarhi. Before resuming the second day of her river ride campaign, she held a meeting with party workers and leaders at the Sitamarhi guest house, where she had halted for the night on Monday.

She urged her party workers to strengthen the Congress and ensure it's victory.

She was asked to comment on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's claim that the Congress had ruled the state for most years since the country's independence and so it was to blame for keeping the sprawling state economically backward.

Priyanka Gandhi hit back at the BJP saying "this 'what they did in last 70 years' has an expiry date.

"Now the BJP should tell the people what it did in the last five years (after Modi took office).

"Shiksha mitras and anganwadi workers did not get anything. The BJP had announced Rs 17,000 per month for them," she said.

"It is good to produce report cards but what has actually happened? There is nothing on the ground. I am meeting people daily, they are distressed," Gandhi said.

Gandhi, who set out from Prayagraj on Monday in a specially-built vessel with supporters, earlier met Congress leaders here and exhorted them to work hard during the elections.

Before resuming her journey on the Ganga, Gandhi met Congress leaders in the area.

Shivam Dubey, a party leader who attended the meeting, told IANS: "We will work hard to ensure that the Congress is strengthened and wins with a huge majority."

Gandhi is expected to reach Chunar in Mirzapur on Tuesday evening.