Rahul addresses Odisha poll rally on virtual mode as gets stuck in Raebareli
‘Modi govt is extending favours to 20-25 select billionaires,’ says Rahul
By Pramod Sahukar
Bhubaneswar, May 3 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday afternoon addressed his Rayagada election rally in Odisha on virtual mode as he was preoccupied with filing of his nomination papers for Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Highlighting five guarantees of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), Gandhi said that his party would waive off loans of farmers and hike the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy if his party came to power.
He also guaranteed that graduates and diploma engineers would be given top priority for jobs, apart from assuring caste census of people of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes.
He also assured 50 per cent reservation of women in the job sector.
“After the UPA government comes to power at the Centre, the Congress will ensure Rs 400 as daily wage for the beneficiaries of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Besides, women will be given a monthly allowance of Rs 8,500,” he said.
Taking a dig at the Central and Odisha governments, the Congress leader said both the establishments are privatizing public sector enterprises. He also alleged that the Modi government was extending favours to 20 to 25 select billionaires. “The money being taken away by the billionaires will be given to the people of dalit communities, scheduled tribes, backward classes in the country as well as Odisha. The adivasis are the real owner of the country. Congress is thinking of their rights on forests, water and land,” he added.
Many Congress heavyweights including Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak, Ajoy Kumar, Bhakta Charan Das, Ram Chandra Khuntia, Taraprasad Bahinipati and Koraput MP Saptagiri Ulaka also addressed the rally.
The Congress had mobilized around fifty thousand people for Rahul Gandhi’s poll rally.
During his last election rally at Salipur on April 28, Gandhi had hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and BJD saying both the parties had a strong relationship like that of a married couple. Gandhi called upon the Odisha voters to study the real face of the BJP and BJD and shun them in the forthcoming simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
He had then also accused both the BJP and BJP of looting the state’s mining and other resources of Odisha.
South Odisha, once a bastion of the Congress, is now dominated by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). It could win only three of the 21 assembly seats in the region.
