Sonia was speaking at a rally in Gumla town on Sunday.
BJP ruled the four governments stayed in power for a total of 2982 of the 5116 days since Jharkhand’s formation. Of the rest, 621 days were taken up by three instances of President’s Rule.
“I have to ask the BJP leaders as to who is responsible for this situation,” said Gandhi, describing the poor development of Jharkhand. “The BJP has ruled this state the longest,” she added.
Criticising the Jan Dhan Abhiyan by pointing out that 35 crore bank accounts were opened during the Congress regime, she also claimed that the Union government had nothing new. “They have merely renamed Congress programmes and are using them,” she said.
A day before, her son and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had said in an election meeting that the Narendra Modi government was formed with the help of industrialists and it would roll back the rights given by his UPA government.
The UPA government had tried to give the people of Jharkhand a number of useful schemes like the MNREGA and rural electrification programme, but BJP governments did not let them reach the people, Sonia said.
“They had let the Maoists grow unchecked. Now, the whole state is under the influence of left wing extremists,” she added.
