Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Monday joined the ongoing 'Palayan Roko, Naukri Do' padyatra of the Congress in Bihar's Begusarai district. The yatra is launched under the leadership of NSUI national in-charge Kanhaiya Kumar.
Clad in a white T-shirt, Gandhi participated in the padyatra in Begusarai town and was accompanied by several party leaders, including Kanhaiya Kumar and state party president Rajesh Kumar.
Taking a jibe at Gandhi over his Bihar visit, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said, "Rahul Gandhi could have started white T-shirt movement to stop the migration, but Congress has itself migrated from Bihar. Congress is also culprit of Lalu Yadav's 'jungle raj' of 15 years. There is a blot on white T-shirt of Congress. Congress was an ally of RJD."
"There are many blots on Congress. Whatever Rahul Gandhi is trying to show, nothing will happen. Congress fought on 70 seats last time, they lost 51. This time, Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav won't give seats to Congress. Rahul Gandhi's yatra is to pressurise RJD to get some seats, there have been statements from both sides. Rahul Gandhi tried a lot in Delhi elections, the result was zero, the result will also be zero in Bihar," added the BJP leader.
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal too raised doubts about the unity among the Opposition parties in the poll-bound state.
He questioned Rahul Gandhi's presence in the state, asking, "Rahul Gandhi has gone to Bihar to search for his political ground, but the question is that there are other parties of the INDIA alliance there too, Tejashwi Yadav and others. Whose ground will Rahul Gandhi cut into?"
A large number of leaders and workers of the Congress and its student and youth wings, carrying party flags and placards demanding the immediate filling-up of vacancies in defence forces, also took part in the padyatra.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi arrived at Begusarai from Patna, where he was received at the Jay Prakash Narayan International Airport by Rajesh Kumar and other senior party leaders.
He will later return to Patna to address the 'Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan' (Save the Constitution Symposium). After that he will visit Sadaqat Ashram, the Bihar Congress office in Patna, to address party workers.
This is Gandhi's third Bihar tour since January, when he had urged party workers to "inflict an ideological defeat" on the BJP in the assembly polls due later this year.
The Raebareli MP shared a minute-long video message on X on Sunday, urging the youth of Bihar to join him in the march in Begusarai wearing "white T-shirts".
"Our aim is to draw the attention of the world to the plight of Bihar's youth, who find government jobs getting scarce day by day and privatisation bringing no benefits. Let us bring the government in the state under pressure and change it," he said in the video.
The Congress leader said, adding that he wanted to show the world the plight of youths of Bihar who have to migrate to other states in search of jobs.
Begusarai also happens to be the home district of Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been the star attraction of the padyatra, which began in East Champaran district last month.
The former JNU students' union president had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, on a CPI ticket, from the seat.
In the Bihar assembly polls, the Mahagathbandhan, comprising RJD, Congress and the Left, is pitted against the ruling Nitish Kumar-led NDA that also comprises the BJP.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh claimed that the Congress MP would be awed by the development in Bihar under PM Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar.
He said that Gandhi “should seek atonement instead”. He said that despite ruling India for 60 years they always “raised the slogan of removing poverty, but they couldn't eradicate poverty”.
He said Modi’s government lifted 25 crore poor people above the poverty line.
“In Begusarai, his father had said that they would open petrochemicals facility in 1985, but nothing ever happened. His eyes will be dazzled when he sees PM Narendra Modi's roads and Nitish Kumar's development in Bihar," the Union Minister added.
