‘I am ready to go to jail for development’

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Rae Bareli, Oct 14: Defying UP chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati’s attempts to scuttle her plans, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday visited her Lok Sabha constituency calling it her ‘‘karma bhoomi’’ and declaring that she is ready to go to jail for the sake of development.

‘‘Rae Bareli and Amethi were the ‘karma bhoomi’ of Feroze Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is also the ‘karma bhoomi’ of mine and Rahul. Both the places are like my home. I want to ask, can anyone prevent me from coming to my home? No one can,‘‘she said in a brief interaction with media persons near the railway station in Lalganj, about 20 km away.

She also had gibe at Mayawati saying like the rail coach factory in her constituency for which land allotment has been cancelled by the state government, there were at least eight such schemes on which the clearance has come but ‘‘all the hurdles are here only in UP’’.

Asked if she was prepared to go to jail, Gandhi shot back ‘‘I am also ready to go to jail’’.

Unfazed by the administration’s attempts to foil her plans for holding a rally on Tuesday by imposing prohibitory orders, Gandhi flew straight to Fursatganj in a private aircraft skipping Lucknow.

The UPA chairperson, who was cheered by slogan-shouting Congress workers, said she had planned to come here for the happy occasion of laying of the foundation stone for the rail coach factory.

‘‘You know the matter is now before the court and I will not make any comments,’’ she said when asked about the cancellation of the land allotment by the UP government.