JEDDAH, 13 November — India’s Congress party has embarked on a major campaign to win votes in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where elections to the legislative assembly will take place in late March or early April.
"We are planning to win the UP election by offering various welfare programs to the public," said C.R. Sagir Ahmad, minister for transport in the southern state of Karnataka. Speaking to Arab News, the politician claimed that minorities, especially Muslims, have found more security under the rule of the Congress.
"Minority communities are coming over to the Congress because of our performance and ideology," he added. The Congress, India’s first political party that fought for the country’s independence, is slowly regaining its past glory. In many states, such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajastan and Assam, it is the ruling party.
Ahmad, who started his political career when he was 21, has earlier served as minister for endowments (Wakf) and small-scale industries. He was instrumental in reorganizing the state’s endowment properties. Ahmad mentioned that S.M. Krishna’s Cabinet had approved 22 new colleges, of which 12 opened this year. Ahmad himself is the chairman of the newly started Al-Hamd Engineering College.
