On the second day of the Navsarjan Yatra, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will begin his election campaign from Banaskantha and address a series of public meetings along the way. Rahul Gandhi ended the first day of his north Gujarat campaign by offering prayers at Ambaji Temple.
On day two of the fourth leg of his campaign, Gandhi covered Danta, Palanpur, Mota, Deesa, Wadinath Temple, Thara, Totana, Roda, Kansada Darwaja and Patan.
On Saturday, Gandhi began his north Gujarat tour by paying a visit to Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar that has a wide following among the Patidar community.
Promising structural reforms in GST if Congress is voted to power, Gandhi said the current GST “is still not a simple tax. It is Gabbar Singh Tax.”
Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat highlights:
6.41 pm:
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addresses a public gathering in Banaskantha’s Thara in #Gujarat pic.twitter.com/AmfH3iuQTU
— ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2017
5.50 pm: Gandhi paid a visit to Wadinath temple, an ancient temple of the shepherd community in Thara town in Gujarat.
4:36 pm: One of the women from the community gifted a basket to the Congress VP who interacted with them and asked them about their livelihoods.
4:30 pm: Rahul Gandhi while moving through Banaskantha stopped his convoy midway to meet people from Vadi community in their slums along the Deesa-Thara highway near Akhol. Vadi community is of nomadic people who weave baskets for livelihood.
4:20 pm: Gandhi is visiting parts of northern Gujarat as part of Congress’ Navsrjan Yatra ahead of elections.
3:55 pm: Rahul Gandhi while addressing a rally in Banaskantha targetted PM Modi on Demonetisation and said that during the note ban all the hoarders turned their black money into white.
3:49 pm: Rahul Gandhi met with marble traders in Gujarat’s Banaskantha. He also met with delegation of Patidar leaders.
3:13 pm: Gandhi addressing a public rally said that the popular sentiment among the public is that the government curtails GST on most commonly used items, bring petrol, diesel, gas cylinders under GST and fix a uniform rate, not more than 18 per cent.
1.20 pm: Rahul Gandhi is cruising through North Gujarat on the campaign trail ahead of Gujarat assembly election.
11.25 am: “BJP has paid social media while Congress has free social media that believes in and propagates only truth,” Gandhi said.
11.15 am: “Whatever we do, spot Modi’s faults or disturb BJP, we won’t disrespect PM’s position. When Modi ji was in opposition he used to speak with disrespect about PM. That is the difference between us and them, no matter what Modi says about us we’ll not go beyond certain point as he is the Prime Minister. But we speak the truth,” Gandhi said in Banaskantha. “Aur ye sach hai ke Gujarat mein vikas pagal hogaya hai,” he said while taking a dig at BJP’s development pitch.
11.10 am: “I have said that Pidi tweets for me. Actually, whatever I want to say…it can be said in two, three words,” Gandhi said in reply to a question from a Congress volunteer.
10.50 am: “We reflect on ideas, there is a team of 3-4 people, to whom I give suggestions and after fine tuning them we tweet. Routine work, like birthday wishes isn’t done by me, I give little inputs on it, tweets on political issues are mine,” Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying by ANI.
10.40 am: Rahul Gandhi’s social media presence had recently become a topic of discussion in political circles. Unlike in the past, his tweets are now often laced with witty one-liners. Recently, he created quite a buzz on social media when he posted a tweet of his dog Pidi on Twitter.
10.30 am: Rahul Gandhi interacted with Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee’s IT cell team and social media volunteers at Ambaji in Banaskantha district on Saturday.
10.20 am: On Friday, Rahul travelled through the north Gujarat towns and villages in a bus and was cheered by crowds. At Chandrala village, his convoy made an unannounced detour where Rahul stopped to have fafda and tea and interacted with local people.