Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday his family has always worked for the people of the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency, unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi who works in the "interest of Adani and Ambani".
Addressing his first election meeting in the constituency after his nomination, Mr. Gandhi said he was contesting the Lok Sabha election from the seat because his family has deep links with the people here.
Hitting out at the Modi government, he claimed that loans amounting to ₹16 lakh crore, which is equal to 24 years of money allotted under the MGNREGA, have been waived for 22-25 top industrialists.
Rahul Gandhi said his grandmother Indira Gandhi, his father Rajiv Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi have worked to improve the lives of people in Rae Bareli.
Considered a Gandhi family bastion, the Rae Bareli seat had been represented by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi since 2004. The constituency was earlier represented by former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
In his address, Rahul Gandhi also accused the media of not showing the problems faced by farmers and unemployed youngsters and instead giving prominence to wedding functions in top industrialists' families.
He said if the INDIA bloc comes to power, a list of poor families would be compiled and ₹1 lakh annually — or ₹8,500 per month — transferred in the bank account of one woman in each such family.
Mr. Gandhi also said an INDIA bloc government would waive the loans of small farmers and legalised common minimum support price would be provided to them.
He reiterated that the Agniveer scheme of short-duration recruitment in the defence forces would be done away and youngsters would be provided permanent jobs in the armed forces with pension provisions.
Mr. Gandhi said youngsters would get one year of apprenticeship in public sector organisations and later, based on their merit, permanent government jobs.
Rae Bareli will go to polls in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 20.
The BJP has fielded Uttar Pradesh Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh from the seat.
