Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of bias towards the rich, as he began a 2,500-km ‘Kisan Yatra’ in election-bound Uttar Pradesh.
Addressing a crowd at Rudrapur in Deoria district, Gandhi said the Prime Minister wanted to waive off loans of the rich but wasn’t ready to do that in the case of farmers.
“Modiji must waive off loans taken by farmers in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere in the country,” he said to applause.
“We have embarked on this Yatra to know the problems of the farmers and to help Modiji understand the situation too.”
The Congress leader also urged the government to slash the electricity tariff by 50 percent and hike the minimum support price given to farmers’ produce.
The Gandhi scion was greeted by huge crowds.
While no one was allowed near the helipad or earlier when he landed with party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in Deoria, Gandhi later went to a Dalit settlement and interacted briefly with the people there.
He offered prayers at a Shiva temple - Baba Dugdheshwarnath - and then started his Yatra in a specially designed bus.
Gandhi’s office said the Yatra will cover 39 districts as well as 55 of the 80 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh.
(Inputs: IANS)
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