Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his first public rally in Rajasthan on Thursday dubbed the Lok Sabha election a battle between the poor and billionaires. He said, "This is an election to save the Constitution and democracy. This election is between the poor and 22-25 billionaires in the country."
Rahul was addressing a public meeting organised in the farmer-dominated Anupgarh district of Rajasthan. It is a part of the SC reserved Bikaner LS seat, where Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal of the BJP is locked in an electoral battle with former minister of the Ashok Gehlot government, Govind Ram Meghwal. Rahul also canvassed for the Congress candidate of adjoining Sriganganagar seat. This was Rahul Gandhi's first visit to the desert state in this election. He addressed another rally in Phalodi in the Jodhpur LS constituency.
The Congress leader was apparently trying to counter BJP's poll pitch in a battle against "corruption and dynastic families". Reiterating the promises Congress made in the manifesto, the former president said the youths are demanding employment, farmers are demanding MSP, and women want relief from inflation, but there is no one to hear their pleas. The government has taken away lakhs of rupees through GST and demonetisation from the poor and for the first time, the farmer has to pay tax.
Rahul promised 30 lakh permanent govt jobs for the unemployed youths and a law for MSP for farmers if his INDIA bloc was voted to power. In Rajasthan, youths join the Army in large numbers and the central government's Agniveer scheme has deprived them of permanent employment, said Rahul. "The Army did not want the Agniveer scheme. It was imposed by the PM Office. We will scrap it and restore the earlier system."
Training his guns on the media, Rahul said unemployment and inflation are the biggest issues before the countrymen, but "if you lookat the media, you will feel that the biggest issue is the Ambani family wedding."
Rahul again raised the issue of backward classes not being given a chance at getting higher positions in the media, big companies and government and said 90 per cent of the country's population has no stake in decision-making, that is why, the voice of the people is missing.
Accusing the Centre of benefitting the rich, Rahul said Modi has waived so much debt of the rich as would have been spent on MNREGA for 24 years. "We will give the same amount of money to the poor that they have given to the rich."
Addressing a rally at Phalodi in Jodhpur in support of the Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda, Rahul accused Modi and the ruling BJP of indulging in large-scale corruption through electoral bonds. He said, "Extortion is going on and its name is electoral bonds."
