On a mission to boost the Congress prospects in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year, Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday visited the famed Vindhyanchal temple in Mirzapur and offered ‘chadar' at the ‘mazaar' of Khwaja Ismail Chisti, nephew of ‘Gharibnawaz' Khwaja Moinudeen Chisti of Ajmer.
The party general secretary, who quietly began an unannounced visit to eastern Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, visited the Sant Ravidas temple at Sreegoverdhan in Varanasi, where he also shared a meal.
Sreegoverdhan is the birthplace of Sant Ravidas and Mr. Gandhi's visit was seen as an attempt to woo Dalits, especially the Jatav sub-caste, which is the main support base of Chief Minister Mayawati. Mr. Gandhi later visited some villages in the Naxalite infested Chandauli and Mirzapur districts before retiring for the day in Mirzapur on Tuesday.
At Mallepur Purwa of Harsinghpur village in the Chilh block of Mirzapur district, he interacted with villagers in a ‘chaupal'.
Weavers in distress
According to Congress sources, Mallepur Purwa was once an important centre of carpet weaving in the district with about 2,000 persons engaged in it.
Today their number has shrunk to 300. Mr. Gandhi interacted with weavers Rajdev Shukla, Ravishankar Gond and Jokhuram Prajapati and was apprised of the difficulties faced by the community. He was told that the weavers were paid Rs.105 each a day. The Amethi MP informed them of the schemes launched by the Central government for the betterment of weavers.
Mr. Gandhi later paid a visit to the house of Javed of Chilh village in Kon block, who was drowned in the Ganga while trying to escape from the police, who allegedly demanded extortion money.
He consoled Javed's widow, Zubeida, and enquired about the first information report.
At Vedpur village in Bhadohi district (Sant Ravidas Nagar), which was his next stop, Mr. Gandhi cautioned the people against the evils of caste politics.
He slammed the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments for looting the State, and said the time had come to elect a Congress government.
Election campaign
Mr. Gandhi is due to flag off the Congress' election campaign from Phulpur in Allahabad district on November 14, birth anniversary of the former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Phulpur was represented by Nehru in the Lok Sabha.
