Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday launched a 2,500-km tour of Uttar Pradesh
Highlights
- After meeting Rahul Gandhi, farmers seen running away with cots
- Cots were laid out to create informal village vibe
- If taking cots is stealing, what about big loan defaulters: Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi labored today to convert an uh-oh moment into a point of attack. "When farmers leave with cots, they are called chors (thieves). When an industrialist escapes with 9,000 crores, he's called a defaulter," he said in Uttar Pradesh, referring to liquor baron Vijay Mallya who has refused to return to India to face banks to whom his defunct Kingfisher Airlines owes big money.
Yesterday, Mr Gandhi launched a 2,500-km tour of Uttar Pradesh, during which he will cover more than half of the 403 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, which will vote early next year. Mr Gandhi's debut meeting with farmers was designed as an informal meeting on khats or cots. They turned into the scene-stealers, with farmers scurrying away carrying them on their shoulders in Deoria in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, minutes after Mr Gandhi left the large public ground.
The cots had been rented for the event at between Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 each.
Locals seen walking away with cots that had been laid out by Congress
Mr Gandhi's comeback today drove his party's allegation that the government at the centre has surrendered the needs and rights of farmers for big corporates. The 46-year-old No 2 of the Congress has in the past christened Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration as a "suit-boot government", mocking a heavily monogrammed suit that the PM wore for a meeting with US President Barack Obama two years ago.
Mr Gandhi's campaign in Uttar Pradesh has been designed by election strategist Prashant Kishor, who worked with the PM on his 2014 campaign before splitting with the BJP to crossover to Nitish Kumar for last year's election in Bihar. He is now on a sort of loan-out from the Bihar government for the Congress' bids for Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
For 27 years, Uttar Pradesh has not picked the Congress to govern it. In the general election two years ago, Mr Gandhi and his mother, Sonia, were the only Congress MPs to be re-elected from India's most populous state.
Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party is seeking re-election as Chief Minister. The BJP has yet to announce its presumptive Chief Minister. Mayawati, Dalit leader and head of the Bahujan Samaj Party, is asking for a fifth term as Chief Minister.