At Jaipur, Rahul Gandhi to thank farmers for poll verdict

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Jaipur on January 9 to thank farmers for bringing the party back to power in Rajasthan and to kick-start the party’s campaign in the state for the Lok Sabha election.

The venue of the ‘Kisan Aabhaar Rally’ was decided on Thursday evening at a meeting of senior Congress leaders including chief minister Ashok Gehlot and deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot in Jaipur.

Gandhi had promised to waive farm loans, if the party came to power, during his election campaign which focused on welfare of farmers and unemployed youths. After coming to power, the Congress announced a loan waiver of up to 2 lakh within three days of government formation.


The party believes that it returned to power because of farmers and it wants to cultivate this segment of voters for the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Besides Gandhi, senior leaders of the state including the CM and deputy CM will attend the rally, said party members.

Gandhi had last addressed three rallies in the state on December 4 – at Malakheda, Surajgarh and Salumbar – in the run-up to the assembly election.

The main opposition BJP termed the forthcoming rally a “meaningless exercise”. “I have no such information about the rally. But if they are doing it they should first waive loans of all the farmers of the state and let the farmers thank them rather than Congress thanking the farmers,” said Gyandev Ahuja, BJP vice president, Rajasthan.

Deputy CM Sachin Pilot, however, dismissed the BJP’s criticism of the announced loan waiver saying that farmers of the state are now really hopeful that their problems would be resolved and that there is a government which considers farmers a priority.

“When BJP governments in other states did loan waiver, it was a good policy. Now, when our government is doing it, they call it bad economics. Farmers understand who can work for their benefits. We will also announce our 110-day programme to the people of Rajasthan in the rally,” said Pilot.

Pilot, who is also the state party president, said that preparations have already begun for the 2019 election and that party workers are collecting feedback from people on the ground.

The Congress is hoping to build on its performance in the assembly election which came after it won two Lok Sabha seats in the state in bypolls held last year. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, it had failed to win any of the 25 seats in the state.