Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Friday urged Chhattisgarh tribals to vote out the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and assured them he would fight their battle in Delhi.
"You bring the Congress government here and see how we develop the state together," Gandhi said while addressing a rally here.
"I will fight your battle in Delhi," he told a crowd of over 10,000 people, mostly tribals.
The Congress government, he said, would take up issues of poor tribals and women, unlike the BJP which works for the rich.
"The BJP government is a government of industrialists. They want to take away your rights over land and forest. We will empower you through Panchayati Raj," Gandhi said amidst aplause from the crowd.
He highlighted the rights-based approach of the United Progressive Alliance government and said legislations for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, food security and land acquisition were aimed at empowering the poor.
Noting that women felt unsafe in Chhattisgarh and the youth were frustrated due to unemployment, he assured the people that the Congress would work for their benefit.
Rahul Gandhi also referred to his late grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and late father, Rajiv Gandhi, and said like them he too "has a relation with the tribals".
The Congress vice president assured the crowd that if his party came to power in the state, it would ensure land rights and minimum support price for forest produce.
The Gandhi scion pointed to the lack of development by the Raman Singh-led BJP government, and asked: "There are no teachers in schools and no doctors in hospitals. What is the use of such a government?"
