Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Friday thanked Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for the inauguration of the permanent campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in his parliamentary constituency Amethi on Saturday and urged the BJP leader to help push similar other projects stalled by the NDA government.
Along with Pradhan, two other Union ministers Prakash Javadekar and Smriti Irani, who contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls against Rahul Gandhi, will also visit Amethi on October 22 and take part in various events in a bid to derive political mileage in the Gandhi-family bastion.
In his letter to Dharmendra Pradhan dated October 20, the Congress vice-president wrote that he would have attended the inauguration ceremony had it been planned and scheduled on a mutually convenient date.
Noting that he had been visiting the permanent campus of the petroleum institute since 2008 as it had been coming up in Jais, Rahul Gandhi said that he would go to the institute once the classes commence.
Appreciating that the petroleum institute, which was conceived by the previous UPA government in 2007, was getting due attention from the BJP-led centre, Rahul, who represents Amethi in the Lok Sabha, urged Pradhan to urge his cabinet colleagues to push several other projects in the area that have been neglected by the NDA.
"I do hope that as a member of the council of ministers you will urge your cabinet colleagues expedite the completion of these important projects as well," said Rahul Gandhi.
The projects include Jagdishpur Paper Mill, Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project, Institute of Driving Training and Research and a Kendriya Vidyalaya.
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The Congress has in the past accused the NDA was deliberately blocking these UPA projects to target the Gandhis', who have been representing Amethi and neighbouring Rae Bareli for many decades.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha.
Incidentally, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were the only two Congress MPs who won their parliamentary seats out of the total 80 in Uttar Pradesh.
The rush of three union ministers to Amethi on Saturday comes months ahead of the assembly polls in the politically crucial state, where the BJP is investing a lot of energy and resources.