Spirited response to Rahul Gandhi’s rallies in Rajasthan reaffirms support enjoyed by Congress in the state

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his two-day tour of Rajasthan, where four Vidhan Sabha bye-elections are due, launched an attack on the NDA government at the Centre in general and Prime minister Narendra Modi in particular over the three farm laws.

He covered four districts during the hectic tour. Two districts – Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh – are located on the borders of Haryana and Punjab and are called the granaries of Rajasthan. He also addressed meetings at Ajmer district’s Rupangarh and Nagaur district’s Makrana, which is known for its white marble.

Rahul Gandhi addressed farmers in all four places. At Padampur and Pilibanga rallies, the dais was made to look like a tractor and rather than chairs, charpoys were laid out and Rahul addressed the rallies sitting on them.

Rahul said the farm laws were tailor-made to suit the corporate houses, allowing them to enter the agriculture sector and play havoc with agriculture marketing. This would mean the corporate houses will buy vegetables, fruits and food grains and keep it in their cold storages before selling it for huge profits.

He said this would kill the mandi system where the farmers were free to sell their agri produce. He said time will tell how draconian the new laws are as they would virtually kill the small and marginal farmers and small vegetable sellers. This would lead to unemployment in rural India’s agriculture sector, he said.

He said India’s economy is based on agriculture which is the biggest business of the country, employing forty per cent of the country’s population. PM Modi is creating a situation where the entire agriculture sector is controlled by two big business houses, he said.

Rahul drove a tractor at the Rupangah rally and prior to this, he went to the Tejaji temple to offer prayers. The tractor rally saw a large number of farmers from the Ajmer district participating in the rally.

Speaking at the rally, Rahul said Modi has given three gifts to the people: the first is hunger, second unemployment and the third was suicide. He said the farm bills will see all the three grow, while the farmers will become poorer and poorer.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot also addressed the rallies.

The four by-elections at Sahada in Bhilwara district, Vallabhnagar in Udaipur, Sujangarh in Churu and Rajsamand are all rural belts and three of the four seats were held by the Congress. Only Rajsamand was held by the BJP.

The BJP is all out to win these four seats and the saffron party’s leaders have started saying that the Congress will lose all the four by-elections, which they claim would be a ‘mini referendum’ against the Ashok Gehlot-led government.

But during the rallies, the large turnout of the crowd and the way they greeted Rahul Gandhi and Ashok Gehlot along with other leaders clearly showed that the Congress continues to enjoy popular support among the state’s people.