VISUALS of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi walking with his arm around the shoulders of activist Medha Patkar recently, as his Bharat Jodo Yatra crosses Maharashtra, kicked off a political storm in Gujarat Friday.
With the BJP launching its mega campaign deploying national and state leaders across 89 constituencies that go to the polls on December 1, the party used every chance to attack Rahul for associating with Patkar, saying that this showed that, like her, he was “anti-Gujarat and anti-Gujaratis”.
Patkar had led the movement against Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar Project through her Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Having made the project the centrepiece of his Gujarat development narrative, Narendra Modi has made Patkar the face of the delays in it.
Tagging tweets of pictures showing Rahul with Patkar, Gujarat Chief minister Bhupendra Patel tweeted: “Congress and Rahul Gandhi have time and again shown their animosity towards Gujarat and Gujaratis. By giving Medha Patkar a central place in his Yatra, Rahul Gandhi shows that he stands with those elements who denied water to Gujaratis for decades. Gujarat will not tolerate this.”
