Amit Shah alleged that the Congress and Indi Alliance used Dalit, tribal and backward communities as a vote bank.
Tag: Rahul Gandhi
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MSP to get legal guarantee if INDIA bloc comes to power: Rahul Gandhi in Bihar
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said his party will accept long-pending demands of farmers in the country and ensure a legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP) of crops if the INDIA bloc comes to power after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Addressing the ‘Kisan Nyay Panchayat’, a gathering of farmers, in Bihar’s Rohtas, as part of his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, Gandhi claimed that “cultivators are not getting the remunerative prices for their crops”.
“If the INDIA bloc comes to power after the general elections, we will give a legal guarantee to MSP. Whenever farmers have asked for something from the Congress, it has been given to them. Be it loan waiver or MSP, we have always protected the interests of cultivators and will do so in future,” Gandhi said.
His comment comes at a time when Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a farmers’ body, called for ‘Bharat Bandh’ on Friday to press the BJP-led central government to accept cultivators’ demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price for crops. Farmers from Punjab began their ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on Tuesday but were stopped by security personnel at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Delhi and Haryana.
The protesting farmers have been camping at the border points ever since. Their agitation entered the fourth day on Friday.
The Congress MP also slammed the BJP-led central government, accusing it of “transferring a considerable portion of funds of the defence budget into the pockets” of an industrialist. “The Centre’s defence budget is not for the welfare of jawans and all defence contracts are going to a corporate group only,” he alleged. Gandhi also criticised the Centre for the ‘Agniveer’ scheme, saying, the Union government has “divided the army into two categories – Agniveer and regulars”.
“If an Agniveer is injured or martyred, they will not receive adequate compensation. Why is this discrimination? Why have they created separate categories in the Army for Agniveer and others?” the Congress MP asked.
Earlier, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav joined Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’. which resumed from the party’s district office in Sasaram this morning and is expected to enter Uttar Pradesh through Mohania in Kaimur district in the evening.
Yadav and Gandhi were seen sitting on the roof of a sports utility vehicle, which was slowly moving, and they waved at enthusiastic crowds that gathered along the main road of the town.
Locals queued up on both sides of the road and watched the procession. Earlier, Yadav was seen driving the SUV with Gandhi and other leaders on board.
Both leaders of the opposition ‘Mahagathbandhan’ will also address a public meeting in Kaimur around 3 pm on Friday.
The ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which started in Manipur on January 14, is scheduled to cover 6,713 km in 67 days, passing through 110 districts in 15 states, before culminating in Mumbai on March 20.
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Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's padyatra resumes in Chhattisgarh
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's padyatra resumes in Chhattisgarh
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‘He Belongs To General Caste’: Rahul Gandhi On PM Modi’s ‘Sabse Bada OBC’ Remark |
Jharsuguda: In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that the former was not born into an OBC family but instead hails from the general caste. The Congress MP urged his followers to confront BJP workers with this revelation, accusing the Prime Minister of deceiving the nation regarding his caste identity.
“Whenever BJP workers come to you, tell them one thing our Prime Minister lied to the entire country that he belonged to the backward class. He was not born in a backward class, he belongs to the general caste. You tell this to every BJP worker.” Rahul made these remarks while speaking at a public rally during the Odisha leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jharsuguda.
#WATCH | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says, “PM Modi was not born in the OBC category. He was born Teli caste in Gujarat. The community was given the tag of OBC in the year 2000 by the BJP. He was born in the General caste…He will not allow caste census to be conducted in his… pic.twitter.com/AOynLpEZkK
— ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2024
Rahul Gandhi’s remark on PM Modi evoked a sharp response from the ruling BJP and its media cell in-charge Amit Malviya called Congress MP’s claim a ”blatant lie.” ”Prime Minister Narendra Modi got his caste notified as an OBC after he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi. This is a blatant lie. PM Narendra Modi’s caste was notified as an OBC on Oct 27, 1999, a full 2 years BEFORE he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat,” Malviya said in a post on X. Malviya also claimed that the ”entire Nehru-Gandhi family, starting from Jawaharlal Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, have been against the OBCs.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi got his caste notified as an OBC after he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi.
This is a blatant lie. PM Narendra Modi’s caste was notified as an OBC on Oct 27, 1999, a full 2 years BEFORE he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat.… pic.twitter.com/lDU3uJrHwJ
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) February 8, 2024Congress Vs BJP Over OBC
This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently in Parliament called himself ‘Sabse Bada OBC’ (the biggest OBC) and accused the Congress of indulging in hypocrisy and adopting double standards while dealing with leaders of Backward communities.
“Congress party and UPA government did not deliver justice with OBCs. A few days ago, Karpoori Thakur ji was conferred with Bharat Ratna. In 1970, when he became Bihar CM, what was not done to destabilise his government? Congress can’t tolerate OBCs…They keep counting how many OBCs are there in the government. Can’t you (Congress) see the biggest OBC here (pointing towards himself)?” PM Modi said in his reply to the ‘Motion of Thanks’ on the President’s Address in Lok Sabha on Monday.
Congress’ Failures And Allegations Of Bias
PM Modi continued his attack on the UPA government and said that the previous government did not deliver justice to OBCs. “During the UPA Government, an extra-constitutional body was formed. The government could not have its way before that body. National Advisory Council – did it have any OBC members? Find out,” he added.
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra
The Odisha leg of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is scheduled to be completed this afternoon before going on a two-day break from February 9-10. The yatra will resume on February 11 from Chhattisgarh. Earlier on Wednesday, the 25th day of the Nyay Yatra, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, visited Vedvyas Dham in the Sundergarh district of Western Odisha. The cave of this temple is considered to be the place where sage and poet Ved Vyas ji composed the Mahabharata.
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra rolled out from Manipur’s Thoubal on January 14. The yatra will cover over 6,700 kilometres over 67 days, traversing through 110 districts. It will cover a distance of 6,713 km, straddling 100 Lok Sabha constituencies and 337 assembly segments and covering 110 districts. The yatra will conclude in Mumbai on March 20, after 67 days.
A follow-up to the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which saw Rahul Gandhi cover more than 3,000 kilometres on foot–from Kanya Kumari to Srinagar–the Yatra 2.0 is following a hybrid format.
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`Mamata Ji Part Of…`: Rahul Gandhi Denies Rift In INDIA Alliance, Claims Seat-Sharing Talks On
Gandhi’s statement came a week after Banerjee announced that her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) will contest the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal alone.
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Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter on Rahul Gandhi: 'Congress should think about their party’s face'
Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter on Rahul Gandhi: 'Congress should think about their party’s face'
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With ‘GYAN’, BJP Clears Its 2024 Poll Strategy To Counter Congress’ Caste Census Plank |
Congress and Rahul Gandhi’s pitch for caste-based census across the country in a bid to counter BJP’s Hindutva poll plank, the saffron party has played two major cards – one was ‘poor’ caste and now the ‘GYAN’. Reacting to the opposition’s demand for a caste census, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during assembly polls in November that there is only one caste for the government and that is ‘poor people’. He said that the NDA government has been working for the welfare of this caste.
Now, two months later, ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that ‘GYAN’ encompasses the Modi government’s four main focus points. Explaining ‘GYAN’, FM Sitharaman said that G stands for ‘Garib’ (Poor), Y for ‘Yuva’ (Youth), A for ‘Annadata’ (Farmer) and N for ‘Nari’ (Women). She said that PM Modi believes in focusing on these four ‘castes’ and the government is committed to the progress of these four sections. While some may have taken it lightly, this is a broader narrative on which the Modi government is working and is wooing the voters of this section.
The government has already been running various programs for these four sections and some of them are the SAUBHAGYA electricity scheme, Ujjwala LPG cylinder scheme, Skill India or Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), promotion of sports through TOPS and Khelo India, and Kisan Samman Nidhi. These are just some of the schemes of the Modi government that cater to these four sections and if taken a holistic view, any poor family.
Women and youth form a majority of the Indian voters and the NDA government has been able to keep this section happy in the 2019 polls and the continuation of such schemes is likely to help the ruling party in the upcoming polls as well. Congress, which has been talking about caste-based census each day ahead of the assembly polls in November, has not only toned down on the issue but now talks about it very rarely. Most probably, the grand old party may have realised that the narrative did not work in its favour and rather gave the BJP a chance to further highlight the schemes run by its government. Now, the question here is, can Congress find a fix to BJP’s ‘GYAN’ and ‘poor’ caste narrative? In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress is not only facing an issue on the alliance front but it will have to find poll planks that resonate with the common people.
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Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra hits roadblock; Mamata Banerjee attacks Congress
The ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday could not complete the Murshidabad’s Kandi and Birbhum part fully in West Bengal due to the class 10 board examination. Later on, the yatra entered Jharkhand after crossing parts of Birbhum’s Murarai. The Congress leadership, however, emphasised on INDIA bloc’s fight against the BJP-RSS in the country.Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “There is only one party – Congress in the country – which has never supported BJP. That is why the INDIA bloc has been formed as we will fight together and defeat the BJP and RSS ideology. The INDIA bloc parties want to defeat BJP. Mamataji also said her priority is to defeat BJP. If there are differences, those can be ironed out.”In contrast to Congress’ mellowed stance, Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee attacked the party and said, “We told Congress to fight 300 Lok Sabha seats across the country and give the rest to the regional parties. But they did not listen to us. They (Congress) came to Bengal and they are tinkling Muslims… BJP does this in the case of Hindus. This cannot happen. No one knows if they will win even 40 seats in the country,” Banerjee said.
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Amid Nitish Kumar’s Flip-Flop, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra Enters Bihar |
NEW DELHI: The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, spearheaded by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, received a warm welcome as it entered Bihar on Monday, marking a significant juncture in its journey to mobilize public backing ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In a sharp rebuke aimed at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jairam Ramesh, a prominent figure within the Congress party, denounced the former’s move to ditch the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ ruling coalition in Bihar, labelling him as a ‘girgit’ (chameleon) for his selfish political manoeuvring.
#WATCH | Congress’ ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ enters Bihar, party leader Jairam Ramesh says, “After Nitish Kumar’s betrayal yesterday, the people of Kishanganj, Bihar are giving a great welcome to Rahul Gandhi and the Yatra. We had invited Mamata ji and also Nitish ji but he turned… pic.twitter.com/yNW7v5YkIo
— ANI (@ANI) January 29, 2024
The Yatra, a strategic move by the Congress ahead of the impending Lok Sabha polls, gained momentum as it traversed through Manipur, Northeast India, and West Bengal, culminating in its entry into Bihar. Rahul Gandhi’s presence in the state marks his first visit since the 2020 Assembly elections, reflecting the party’s renewed focus on the region.
Nitish Kumar’s move to switch alliances according to his political interests has stirred controversy, with his recent realignment with the BJP-led NDA prompting criticism from erstwhile allies and opposition parties alike. The Congress’s alliance partners in Bihar, including the RJD and CPI(ML)-L, have been invited to join forces in a rally aimed at addressing Kumar’s political volte-face.
During public addresses scheduled as part of the Nyay Yatra’s Bihar leg, Rahul Gandhi is anticipated to target Nitish Kumar over his latest political somersault. The Congress’s vehement reaction to Kumar’s alliance shift underscores the volatile political climate in the state.
Meanwhile, the JDU has accused the Congress of attempting to hijack the political narrative, citing arrogance as a driving force behind the breakdown of the INDIA alliance. Nitish Kumar’s resignation as Chief Minister further underscores the discord within the political landscape, with implications for the broader INDIA platform.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, projected as a national movement for justice, began from Manipur’s Thoubal, spanning over 6,700 kilometres across 110 districts, and will culminate in Mumbai. This ambitious yatra signifies Congress’s concerted effort to galvanize public sentiment and consolidate support nationwide before the General Elections.