Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Manipur is “not a big deal”, asserting that the real concern before the country is “vote chori” (vote theft).
Speaking to reporters outside Keshod airport in Gujarat’s Junagadh district, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the “vote chor” (vote thief) slogan is being raised across the country.
“Manipur has been in trouble for a long time and the Prime Minister has decided to go there now. So that’s not a big deal. The main issue today in India is ‘vote chori’ (vote theft),” Gandhi said.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Manipur on Saturday, where he will interact with internally displaced persons in Churachandpur and Imphal. This will be Modi’s first trip to the northeastern state since ethnic violence broke out two years ago.
Alleging that the BJP had “stolen” elections in Haryana and Maharashtra, Gandhi said, “We proved in Karnataka recently that they did it. So, the main issue is vote theft. Everywhere people are raising the slogan of ‘vote chor’.”
After arriving at Keshod airport on Friday afternoon, Gandhi travelled to Junagadh city to address district and city unit presidents of the Gujarat Congress and hold discussions with senior party leaders.
The meeting is part of the Congress’ ‘Sangathan Srujan Abhiyan’, a campaign to strengthen the organisation in the BJP-ruled state. The training camp, underway in Junagadh from September 10 to 19, was inaugurated by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday.
“Rahul Gandhi will address local party leaders and interact with senior leaders. He will spend nearly three hours at the programme before leaving for Delhi,” Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.
With inputs from PTI
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