Attempt to disrupt Priyanka tour with pro-Modi slogans

Shahira Naim
Tribune News Service
Mirzapur, March 19

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday urged the people not to get distracted by non-issues and remain focused on their demand for development.

“People will come to you during the election and will try to talk about caste and religion. Bring them back to the agenda of development and ask what they have to offer for your development,” Priyanka told a large number of people who had come to hear her at the Sindhaura ghat in Mirzapur where she introduced Congress candidate Lalitesh Pati Tripathi.

The day included visits to two temples and a dargah, an unscheduled visit to the house of a weaver, listening to the woes of Shiksha Mitras and periodically stopping to interact with crowds who had been waiting for hours to have a glimpse of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. 

Later, in her public meeting at the Sindhaura ghat, she shared her experience of the day to illustrate the problems thrown up by the BJP rule.

“None of the youth I spoke to during the day has any work. All said that they were berozgaar (unemployed), only a few ran shops. The weaver I met said that during the last five years, his profit has gone down by 50 per cent. Today only a Shiksha Mitra has committed suicide, the Asha Bahus and Anganwadi workers are getting a pittance,” said Priyanka.

Speaking of the problems of the farmers, she said her brother Rahul Gandhi was moving around the country promising the farmers the right price for their produce and easy availability of seeds and fertilizers. “As soon as our government came in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the farmers’ loans were written off,” she pointed out.

Priyanka said she had come to Purvanchal to understand the problems of the people. Earlier, she spent considerable time interacting with Shikta Mitras in Sitamarhi. She then visited the Sita Samahit Sthal and Balmiki ashram. 

Moving towards Mirzapur, she made an impromptu visit to the Bunkar colony in Gopiganj where she dropped to have chat with a weaver Phoolchand Yadav.

She then visited the famous Vindhyavasini temple in Mirzapur where she spent considerable time in puja. At the temple, some BJP and Congress supporters indulged in slogan-shouting contest as they raised slogans in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi.

Later, she greeted people at the Bhatauli Ghat in Mirzapur and addressed a meeting at Sindhaura Ghat before retiring for the day at Chunaar guest house where she is scheduled to have a meeting with party workers.

On the concluding day of her Ganga Yatra on Wednesday, she is to move to Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of PM Modi.