Lucknow, Oct 12: History repeated itself after nearly four decades when Congress yuvraj Rahul Gandhi treaded the path of his grandmother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during his visit at Tuesday October 11. Rahul kept his routine of spending the night at a dalit family’s house and sharing food with them in this backward Bundelkhand region. Indira Gandhi too had visited the same locality during her days.
Rahul once again sprang a surprise when he left the circuit house at Jhansi around 10 pm on Monday and reached the house of Kunji Lal Kori, a dalit hailing from Medeki in Mauranipur village. Kunji Lal’s family was surprised and their joy knew no bounds when Rahul asked for food.
The daughter-in-law of the family Arti served potato with gravy and puri, and Rahul held an informal Chaupal with the villagers. Union minister for state, rural development Pradeep Jain who is also the local MP too remained on toes during the visit while state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi rushed from Lucknow to accompany Rahul. From Jhansi, Rahul left for Mahoba but stopped at a fertiliser sale point only to discover anomalies. Some villagers even informed him that forest department had served notice to them to vacate the forest land.
Assuring and patting them with sympathy Rahul moved ahead to Hamirpur and on the way he inspected the development taken up in the area especially under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee programme (MNREGA). He also met some Self Help Group (SHG) members to hold discussions about future development plans in the area. Rahul was reported to be moving towards Banda district and was expected to leave for Delhi tonight.
The visit did not come as a suprise as Rahul often makes last minute changes in his itinerary, thus even posing security concerns. The local district administration too remained unaware about the undisclosed changes. Already, the state government and the central government have exchanged words over Rahul’s previous visit with the state government claiming that such move by Rahul lead to security concern, an issue being overlooked by Congress general secretary.