Rahul Gandhi's three-day visit to Amethi begins today: Congress V-P to land in Lucknow, attend farmers' chaupal

Following much controversy around the visit to his Parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is all set to begin his three-day trip to Amethi on Wednesday. Rahul, who would be given protection by the district administration upon his visit, will land  in Lucknow on Wednesday and leave for Amethi by road. On the way, he will stop at villages to meet people. According to Hindustan Times, Rahul will also take part in a ‘chaupal’ of farmers at Kathaura village near Jagdishpur. He will stay overnight at the guest house in Munshiganj. He will be visiting Amethi after a gap of six months. [caption id=“attachment_4107971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] On Thursday, the Congress leader is scheduled to hold a ‘janta darshan’ at the guest house, where he will meet party workers at Rajiv Gandhi college in Tiloi and in Salon. The second day of the visit will end at the Bhuemau guest house in Raebareli. On Friday, he will hold a ‘janta darshan’ in Raebareli and meet party workers. The district administration had earlier denied  permission to Rahul from visiting his constituency. Amethi district magistrate Yogesh Kumar, in a confidential letter, had said that they had informed Rahul that most of the police force would be deployed to maintain law and order in view of Durga Puja, Muharram and Gandhi Jayanti till 5 October. It was after Congress protested this move and called it “discriminatory”, the administration granted permission to the Amethi MP. Rahul’s visit follows the ruling BJP’s  announcement of a grand event to launch multiple projects in Amethi on 10 October. Congress leaders had also accused the Yogi Adityanath government of conspiring against its top leader from visiting Amethi because of BJP’s event, reported NDTV. Rahul’s three-day tour comes after his US visit in September, where the 47-year-old leader had taken up issues like  unemployment , and openly criticised the BJP government. It was during one of his gigs in US that Rahul had affirmed he was ready to be the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress for the next Lok Sabha elections. Speaking at a university in Berkeley, Rahul had acknowledged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a better communicator than him. He had said: “Modi has certain skills, he is a very good communicator, he’s much better than me. He knows how to give a message to 3-4 different groups in a crowd, so his messaging ability is very effective and subtle.” During another interaction with the students of Princeton University, Rahul had admitted that Modi-led BJP came to power in India as the people were angry with his Congress party over the same issue.

“I think, the central reason why Modi arose and to an extent why Trump came, is the question of jobs in India and in the United States. There’s a large part of our populations that simply do not have jobs and cannot see a future. And, so they are feeling pain. And they have supported these type of leaders,” he had said. However, Rahul also said that he agreed with some initiatives of the Modi government, including Make in India programme, reported  Hindustan Times.

The Congress vice-president had called “politics of polarisation” as the central challenge for India. “In the 21st century, if you leave some people out of your vision, you are asking for trouble. New ideas would come, new different visions would develop,” he had said. In his final address at the New York Times Square, Rahul had criticised the BJP-led NDA government. He said: “Peace and harmony in India are being challenged. India’s reputation in the world is being ruined. People here are asking me, what’s going on in your country?” In August, posters declaring Rahul as ‘missing’ had surfaced  in Amethi. Congress had termed it a ‘handiwork’ of BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the move against its leader. On Tuesday, Rahul attacked Adityanath over the reported exclusion  of Taj Mahal from the Uttar Pradesh’s tourism booklet. He invoked famous Hindi writer Bhartendu Harishchandra to describe the Uttar Pradesh government and the chief minister as “andher nagari, chaupat raja”.

सूरज को दीपक न दिखाने से उसकी चमक नहीं घटती! ऐसे ही राज के लिए भारतेंदु ने लिखा था, 'अंधेर नगरी, चौपट राजा'!https://t.co/4Mrq6Aevue

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 3, 2017

With inputs from agencies