Rahul kicks off Congress campaign in Maharashtra

Congress general secretary and scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday kicked off the Congress’ poll campaign in Maharashtra from this historic city, where Mahatma Gandhi lived for some time during the country’s freedom struggle.

In his maiden poll speech in the region, Rahul took on the BJP’s prime ministerial choice, L K Advani, even as he listed the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) achievements and unfolded plans for encouraging the youth to join politics.

Addressing a crowd of around 20,000 made to sit in an open ground under a blistering sun, Rahul, sporting his now-familiar stubble and a white kurta-pajama outfit, accused the opposition of making false and irrational allegations. “They call Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the weakest ever, but bent double during the aircraft hijack crisis and even sent a minister to Kandahar for negotiations,” he remarked to cheers from the crowd.

Datta Meghe, the Congress candidate for the Wardha Parliamentary constituency, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and MPCCI President Manikrao Thakre also shared the dais with Rahul. The young Gandhi connected well with the crowd and said that it was Manmohan Singh who brought international pressure on Pakistan after the Mumbai terror attacks.

“They (BJP) try to find new issues every time an election comes up and forget what they did when they were in power,” he commented, adding that the opposition “cannot understand what the poor are and neither do they care.”

“They opposed the nuclear treaty for power when they themselves wanted to sign it five years ago,” he quipped. Earlier, Rahul visited Gandhiji’s ashram at Sewagram and paid tributes to the ‘father of the nation’.

“I am trying to recall any pre-2004 policy for the poor that the opposition launched. However, I find myself unable to do so, though I do remember them selling hotels to their friends, fighting for privatisation and talking about the stock market,” he said.

“They deride anybody who talks of the poor because they have nothing for the underprivileged,” he maintained.

Rahul said he had initiated a movement to bring youth into politics. “We have done it in Punjab and Gujarat with some success. Now the NSUI and Youth Congress are changing for bringing youth into politics to work for the poor,” he added.

He also touched upon the programmes launched by the ruling UPA and said it was the Manmohan Singh government that introduced the employment guarantee scheme and the loan waiver for farmers. “When we were told that the loan waiver scheme did not benefit farmers of this region, we changed it for you in the entire country,” he said.

Rahul said the UPA knew that the poor needed a job and was always ready to listen to them and hold their hands. “If there is only one person who is poor, I can assure you that Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and I will listen to his voice,” he said blasting the NDA for its ‘India Shining’ campaign ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and “not looking through the eyes of the poor”.

Rahul also criticised the ‘religious’ and ‘casteist’ politics of the opposition and said it was only the Congress which considered the entire nation as one.

Later, he left for Nanded, the chief minister’s Assembly constituency, in a chartered helicopter to the beats of ‘Jai Ho’.