‘Root out BJP just like Gandhi, Sardar threw out British’

Nana Pondha (Valsad): Exhorting people to root out BJP from Gujarat, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi made an all-out attempt to reach out to tribals, women as well as the agitating Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers in adivasi-dominated Valsad district on Tuesday.
Gandhi, who had rushed to Rae Bareli on Wednesday night to meet victims of NTPC boiler explosion, hit the campaign trail again from Dharampur town and later addressed a huge gathering at Nana Pondha village.
Striking a local chord, Gandhi began his address with ‘kem cho’ and apologized for coming late to the rally, drawing immediate applause from the crowd. “Just like Gujarati men Gandhiji and Sardar Patel brought the British to their knees, it is time for 6 crore people of Gujarat to root out BJP from Gujarat after 22 years,” Gandhi said.
He even sought to borrow episodes from Mahabharata to describe the upcoming polls as a fight between truth and falsehood.
The truth about Gujarat, he said was not what BJP is propagating, but it is the joblessness, adivasis dying of hunger, poor healthcare and education infrastructure, killing of Patidar youths and atrocities on Dalits.
“In Mahabharata, Duryodhana and Arjuna went to Lord Krishna. Krishna asked Duryodhana to give five villages to Pandavas, but the latter refused to give anything without going to war. We also have truth on our side and this will help us win. Modi has police and the entire government machinery, but nothing will prevail in front of truth,” he said.
Congress is struggling to regain is foothold in the tribal belt of south Gujarat and heavily banking on Gandhi’s outreach to make inroads in this BJP stronghold. He said the Nehru-Gandhi family always considered adivasis as their family, but the BJP here has taken away tribals’ rights as well as their land.
Gandhi continued his tirade against the government’s ‘cronyism’ and said that the Congress-led UPA government had spent Rs 35,000 crore to start MNREGA, but in Gujarat Rs 33,000 crore was given as an almost interest-free loan to Tatas for making Nano, which is nowhere to be seen.