Indore: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who has been taking on the BJP-led NDA government over various issues recently, on Tuesday visited Dr BR Ambedkar's birthplace Mhow and paid tributes to the Dalit icon by garlanding his statue.
Rahul's visit is a prelude to the Congress' plans to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar - the architect of the Indian Constitution - next year in a grand way and come closer to the community, which was once its vote bank.
According to the All India Congress Committee, Rahul will also address a public meeting in the afternoon and interact with Dalit leaders and activists in the evening before returning to Delhi.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Arun Yadav told reporters that Rahul's visit is the opening event of a series of meetings and interactions planned by the Congress during Dr Ambedkar's 125th anniversary.
Apart from mounting a high voltage campaign on farm sector crisis in different parts of the country and targeting the Narendra Modi government over the land bill, Rahul also taken up fishermen's problems by visiting a coastal village in Kerala recently.
Rahul wants to mislead Dalits, says BJP
Meanwhile, BJP alleged that Rahul is visiting Dr Ambedkar's birthplace to "mislead" the Dalit community.
"Congress is sending Rahul to Mhow as a part of its conspiracy as it wants to mislead the Dalits," Madhya Pradesh Minister of State for General Administration Lalsingh Arya told reporters here.
The senior BJP leader, a Dalit himself, said, "Rahul does not have the moral right to visit the birth place of Dr Ambedkar as Congress has been continuously betraying the Scheduled Caste community since Independence. He has no moral right to spend nights at the huts of the Dalits."
Accusing Congress of disrespecting Dalit icon Dr Ambedkar, Arya said, "Due to the Congress' conspiracy, Ambedkar couldn't win the Bombay Lok Sabha seat and Bhandara bypoll to Parliament."
Sonia asks Congressmen to vigorously mark Ambedkar's anniversary
On the other hand on May 30, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked partymen to undertake year-round vigorous programmes to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Ambedkar.
At a meeting of top leaders of the party, including Rahul and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the party chief had wanted year-round vigorous programmes to be undertaken to take the message of Ambedkar far and wide.
Former Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Leader of the party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and several party General Secretaries including Digvijay Singh were present at the meeting.
Congress has lost much ground among Dalits, especially in the North, in the past three decades with the emergence of BSP.
The surge of 'Mandal' and 'Mandir' issues in the late 80s also resulted into the marginalisation of the party in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where it is out of power for 25 long years.
(With PTI inputs)
