Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday said her party’s decades old relationship with the people of Rae Bareli has entered a new phase and reiterated that voters are once again ready to elect the party. Ms. Vadra who is campaigning for her brother Rahul Gandhi, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of developing a nexus with big corporates, making favourable policies for these selected few and waiving off their loans.
“Whether it was the freedom movement or the post-Independence period, the conscious people of Rae Bareli have always taken the lead and shown the way to the country. Today, Rae Bareli is once again ready to fight for the salvation of democracy and the Constitution,” Ms. Vadra said.
“Congress has a hundred-year-old relationship of struggle and affection with the Rae Bareli family. When the freedom movement was going on, Pandit Motilal Nehru ji and Jawaharlal Nehru ji were associated with the farmers’ movement of Rae Bareli. Since then this relationship has remained intact and has become stronger than ever with time. There is tremendous enthusiasm among the people. Rae Bareli has become entranced with Rahul,” she said addressing a public gathering at Bhawanigarh locality in Rae Bareli.
Ms. Vadra, who is likely to stay and lead the campaign of the grand old party in Rae Bareli and Amethi, hit back at the Prime Minister over his comment that top Congress leaders are not targeting Adani and Ambani.
“Today, Narendra Modi ji said that Rahul Gandhi is not taking Adani’s name. The fact is that Rahul Gandhi talks about Adani every day, he puts the truth about Adani in front of you [people] every day and exposes it,” the Congress leader claimed.
She added that her brother on a daily basis exposes the nexus of the PM with big corporates helping them with favourable policy decisions. “Rahul Gandhi tells you every day that Narendra Modi ji developed a nexus with big capitalists. Narendra Modi waived off loan worth ₹16 lakh crores of his friends but did not waive off a single rupee of the farmers, the poor, women, and unorganised sector,” Ms. Vadra alleged.
Ms. Vadra, reached the Gandhi family bastion last week after the grand old party declared on May 3 that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will contest the Parliamentary elections from Rae Bareli, the constituency held by his mother Sonia Gandhi for the last two decades, and Kishori Lal Sharma, a close aide of the Gandhi family, will contest from Amethi Lok Sabha segment.
Rae Bareli is considered a stronghold of Congress as it was the only seat won by the party from Uttar Pradesh in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, with Sonia Gandhi defeating her rival candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party by roughly 1,67,000 votes. The grand old party won 17 out of the 20 elections in Rae Bareli so far since independence, including byelections.
