Apparently with an eye on the OBC votes to capture the throne of India’s biggest state, the Congress on Tuesday put technocrat Sam Pitroda forward at the launch of the party’s election manifesto here.
The hint was already there that he was going to be the “OBC face” of the party in the forthcoming Assembly elections as Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has referred to his name and caste at his various election meetings.
And Pitroda stressed the need for development of technology in UP. “Technology is going to play an important role in the development of the state,” he said.
He referred to his caste and said he took pride in the fact that he is the son of a carpenter. Rahul, too, had mentioned his caste at his rallies in the state earlier.
Apparently the Congress is trying to encash Pitroda’s credentials as a technology man to show that it accorded due respect to the OBC which constitutes roughly 30 per cent of the UP’s electorate. The BJP had already projected Uma Bharti, an OBC, as its leader in the state.