Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday visited the spot of the flyover collapse in Kolkata which has claimed 27 lives. Rahul, who is in West Bengal to campaign for Assembly elections, said he had come to extend support to the victims and did not want to politicise the issue. But the BJP took a swipe at the Gandhi scion’s visit to the site of the flyover collapse calling it a “photo-op” which is the “lifeline” of the politics of the Congress vice president.
“There has been a tragedy here. I have come here to give them whatever little support I can provide,” said Rahul after meeting the injured at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. When asked to comment on the allegations of lapses in the construction of the flyover, Rahul said, “I have come here to meet the injured. I’ll not talk about politics.”
He also talked to NDRF officials at the accident site accompanied by State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury and party leader Deepa Dasmunsi. later, the Congress vice president left for Niyamatpur to address an election meeting.
BJP asked Rahul to explain his stand on the award of contract for building the flyover to an alleged blacklisted firm by the then CPI(M) Government in West Bengal, questioning if the alliance between Congress and the left there is based on the “foundation of corruption”.
“Rahul Gandhi is known for photo-ops. That is his politics. His political lifeline is photo-op,” BJP National Secretary and West Bengal co-incharge Sidharth Nath Singh said reacting to the visit.
He also claimed that BJP took a conscious decision that its Union Ministers, who were in the State for electioneering, would not go to the spot so as to avoid hampering rescue operation and drew a comparison with demonstration by Congress workers there that, he alleged, hindered rescue work. Singh said Rahul Gandhi must answer if Congress exhibited responsibility with its demonstration on the spot.