Zeenews Bureau
Lucknow: As Rahul Gandhi’s Kisan Mahapanchayat in Aligarh edged towards success, a seemingly frustrated Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Saturday alleged that most of the people present there were not farmers but ‘ticket hopefuls’ for the next assembly elections.
Taking on the Congress general secretary, BSP said that eighty percent of the people in the Mahapanchayat were ‘ticket hopefuls’ and just twenty percent were real farmers.
On reports that more than one lakh farmers attended Rahul’s Mahapanchayat, BSP said as a riposte that if there were just seven thousand chairs on the ground, then how come so many people assembled there?
BSP also accused the Congress of politicising the farmers’ issue and said that the Mahapanchayat was merely an eyewash and an attempt to fool the farmers of the state.
Earlier on Friday, BSP had termed the Mahapanchayat as a "political drama".
BSP had earlier accused Rahul of a creating a social divide saying he discriminated in his behaviour with dalits.
Rahul Gandhi had stayed at dalit houses during his 'kisan padyatra', but the BSP had alleged that he did not have food prepared by them.
"Though Congress yuvraj had a night halt at the house of one person belonging to 'kanjar' caste in Marodgarhi village of Aligarh but he did not have food prepared there and it was ordered from outside for him while for his staff it was arranged at the house of the gram pradhan", a BSP spokesman had said.
Terming such behaviour indicative of Congress party's casteist mentality, the spokesman had said that these stays at the houses of dalits and backwards were nothing but "drama".
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray also attacked Rahul Gandhi over the farmers’ issue. He questioned Rahul’s intent saying if the young leader really cared for the farmers, then he should come to Jaitapur.
First Published: Saturday, July 09, 2011, 18:36