Chandigarh:
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today visited the family of a farmer who had allegedly killed himself due to cotton crop failure in Punjab and accused the state's Akali Dal-BJP alliance of neglecting farmers.
After spending time with the family of 65-year-old Jagdev Singh at a village in Bathinda 200 km from Chandigarh, Mr Gandhi told a gathering of farmers that his party, "was all out to help those in need and root out the weeds in form of Akali-BJP combine." A pest attack and fake pesticides have been identified as the causes for the crop failure.
On Thursday, flanked by Congress leaders, Mr Gandhi had tried to send out the message that the Congress in Punjab is no longer divided and fighting fit to take on the government.
For months now, Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Ministers Capt Amarinder Singh and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal have been fighting among themselves for control of the party's state unit. The Congress fancies a revival of its electoral fortunes with a possible win in the state assembly elections in February 2017.
Mr Gandhi went with the state Congress leaders to offer prayers at the historic Takht Damdama Sahib Gurudwara in Talwandi Sabo near Bathinda this morning. The Takht is one of the five temporal seats of the Sikhs. Mr Gandhi leading a group of Punjab Congress leaders to offer prayers at the Gurudwara is significant after recent clashes over the desecration of the Sikh holy book.