NEW DELHI, Mar 5: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra on Tuesday witnessed a surprise encounter at Shajapur city of Madhya Pradesh when BJP supporters greeted it with “Modi-Modi” chants as his convoy passed through the area.
The Congress leader halted the procession to engage with the chanting BJP workers, even blowing kisses in response. The Yatra, which entered BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh on Saturday, encountered a group of BJP supporters led by corporator Mukesh Dubey.
Mr Gandhi, upon spotting the group, paused the convoy to interact with them, exchanging greetings and handshakes as the BJP workers shouted “Jai Shri Ram.” Following the brief exchange, Mr Gandhi returned to his vehicle, waving and blowing a kiss before continuing the journey.
Later the BJP corporator mentioned Mr Gandhi’s gesture in response to their slogans, stating he welcomed the Congress leader and even presented potatoes to him. “I told Mr Gandhi that you are welcome,” he said. The potatoes are a reference to an old video in which, according to some BJP leaders, Mr Gandhi had spoken about converting potatoes to gold. Many fact-checking websites had, however, said the clip was taken out of context and the full video showed that the Congress leader was taking a dig at the BJP using that line.
The Yatra proceeded to Ujjain later in the day.
Meanwhile, reports from Patna said the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has south simultaneous elections to the state Assembly along with the Lok Sabha polls. “For us, the Lok Sabha seat division is not important. In fact, a large section of the party believes that Assembly elections should be called simultaneously so that we can correct our strength in the Assembly, which was distorted the last time around because of the LJP contesting against us,” a senior JD(U) leader said.
The JD(U) and LJP both are this time alliance partners of the NDA. The JD(U) had turned up to be the third largest party in the Bihar Assembly in the last elections far below the strengths of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the BJP. Mr Kumar, however, had managed to hang on to the chief minister’s post changing sides frequently between the RJD-led “Mahagathbandhan” and the BJP-led NDA.
(Manas Dasgupta)
