In an effort to retain the Congress’ tea tribe vote bank in Assam, AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday launched the party’s poll campaign in the tea belt of Assam even as he said that the BJP might try to trigger communal tension in the poll-bound State.
Rahul Gandhi embarked on a two-day Assam visit on Monday and addressed at least three meetings in tea rich Upper Assam. While Gandhi addressed Congress’ booth level workers at Gohpur, he also addressed the women workers of the party at Bihpuria and addressed a public rally at Titabor — the home constituency of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. later, the AICC leader also met a group of tea tribe leaders at Jorhat.
“Wherever BJP goes and contests an election, it engineers violence. This is the difference between the Congress and the BJP. While we work for peace, the BJP wants to spread violence and destroy the brotherhood between communities. They want to make the Hindus fight against Muslims. You can see in Bihar, Maharastra, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana- wherever they (BJP) had gone, they triggered clashes between communities by spreading hatred,” said Gandhi.
“However, laluji, Nitishji and Congress joined hands in Bihar and we spread brotherhood there and won the elections, the same will be repeated here. Their perception was that by turning the Hindus against the Muslims, they will win. Now, the same thing is going to happen in Assam,” said Rahul Gandhi.
It may be mentioned here that although the tea belt in Assam is a traditional vote bank of the Congress, the Congress-which has been in power in Assam since 2001-fared badly in the tea belt areas in the last lok Sabha polls in 2014.
The AICC leader also attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the Prime Minister only makes lofty promises but never fulfills them. “I remember Modiji came here ahead of the lok Sabha polls and assured that Rs. 15 lakh will be deposited in the account of each Indians. Have anyone of you got the amountIJ” he asked.
“He had assured jobs for the youth and to contain price rise. However, the prices of pulse have reached Rs. 200 now and the BJP government had not been able to give jobs,” he said adding that when Modiji became Prime Minister, he also withdrew the special category status to Assam and other northeastern States.
“You all know what the situation in Assam was like 15 years back. You remember those violent days when you were afraid of going out of your home. But today you are not afraid. The reason is Gogoi and the Congress, who had been working for peace and development of the state,” Gandhi said.