Rahul Gandhi marches on in Uttar Pradesh, visiting villages along the under-construction Yamuna Expressway from Noida to Agra, the BSP has said "his theatrics won't revive the Congress" in the state. BJP's UP in charge Uma Bharti also did not miss the opportunity to slam his visit and said it will not bring any change. She also blamed the Centre for wrong policies.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday that Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code - which bans any gathering of five or more persons - was still in force in the area. But a defiant Rahul crossed Gautam Budh Nagar to enter the Aligarh district late on Wednesday as his kisan padyatra entered its second day.
He was told he could not garland the iconic statue of Dr B R Amebkar in Mayawati's constituency of Ambedkar Nagar. So Rahul Gandhi showered petals on the leader's statue in Parliament in Delhi, and then headed to battle the UP Chief Minister on her home turf.
He had trudged around 25 km on foot covering five villages starting from Bhatta-Parsaul. Late in the evening, he halted at the Rampur Bangar village in Gautam Budh Nagar district where he stayed and dined at the house of former village head Kalicharan Sharma.
He reached the village around 7.30 am and interacted with the farmers there.
Rahul wrapped up the meetings by 11.45 am but had to postpone the ' power walk' after it started to drizzle. He resumed the padyatra around 4 pm and crosses on to Aligarh district, entering Budaka village.
Rahul plans to reach Aligarh by Saturday. There, he has called a kisan mahapanchayat. But Aligarh is still 55 km away and reaching the place on foot in three days seems like a tall order for the Congress general secretary, given his speed.
Addressing a well attended meeting of party workers before flagging off 10 statewide ‘sandesh yatras’ (awareness march) to commemorate Congress' 125 years of establishment, Rahul alleged that the Mayawati government was not interested in the development of dalits.
Gandhi then set loose upon the state's 403 constituencies a series of specially-constructed raths that his party hopes will symbolize ten state-wide yatras. Congress leaders will roll into different parts of UP to woo voters.
Mayawati is not unaware of this feeling of abandonment. She has indicated recently that close to 40 Brahmin MLAs will not get tickets in the next election.
Share This Story to Your Friends ---
