New Delhi: After taking a break from Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday hit the campaign trail in Gujarat to seek votes in favour of Congress candidates and accused the BJP of drawing up plans to displace adivasis by handing over forests to industrialists.
Addressing his first rally in Gujarat after the announcement of the Assembly poll schedule, Gandhi asserted that tribals are the first owners of the country, but BJP was working to take away their jungles and keep their children away from modern education. Rahul hit the campaign trail in Gujarat just 10 days ahead of the first phase of polling, which is scheduled to be held on December 1.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is on two-day break from Monday to Tuesday and it would resume on Wednesday from Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh. The Yatra is currently passing through Maharashtra. Gandhi addressed a gathering of tribals at Mahuva in Surat district in support of his party, which is seeking to end its nearly three-decade stint in the opposition in the BJP-ruled state in the next month's assembly polls.
On Morbi bridge collapse, he said, "About 150 people were killed in Morbi and 47 of them were innocent children. It's been 22 days since the tragedy and no action has yet been taken against the main culprits responsible for the mishap as this is the BJP's corruption and commission model to support of the guilty." Stressing that his 3,570-km yatra, which started from Tamil Nadu on September 7, was for the unity of the country, he said that during the cross-country foot-march he felt the pain of farmers, youth and people from the tribal community after listening to their problems.
"They (BJP) call you 'vanvasi' (forest dwellers). They do not say you are the first owners of India, but that you live in the jungles. Do you see the difference? It means they do not want you to live in cities, see your children becoming engineers, doctors, learn to fly planes, speak English," he said at the tribal-dominated rally in Mahuva. Further attacking the ruling party, Gandhi alleged that the BJP wants to keep tribals away from modern health and education facilities.