Clearly indicating that Congress would target rural voters in the upcoming elections, Rahul Gandhi today said BJP was practising "politics of the rich" while his party believed in doing "politics for the common man".
Sharpening his attack against the BJP, Rahul also slammed the saffron party for its "politics of India Shining" and reached out to the poor and rural youths in backward Bundelkhand, hard-selling the UPA's flagship schemes of food security, land acquisition and job guarantee programme MNREGA.
"The BJP is practising politics of the rich and those who use air conditioners while Congress believes in doing politics for the common man", the Congress Vice President told an election rally in Sagar in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh.
Rahul also harped on the unity of his party in the faction-ridden state unit and expressed confidence that it will form the next government in MP, which will "not belong to a leader" but to the poor, youths and women.
In a speech laced with anecdotes like dreams of a "sweating farmer" engaged in agricultural work that his sons or grandsons would some day fly in aeroplanes, Rahul said the Congress believed in empowring the people unlike the BJP.
Seeking to add a personal touch to his association with people in Bundelkhand, Gandhi recalled that when he had first come to the region, he had suffered mosquito bites and when he had consumed water in a village, he got a stomach upset.
"But I was happy. Politicians should know the hardships faced by people," he said.
Rahul, who has been focussing on the Bundelkhand region for quite some time and had also been instrumental in getting a financial package for the area, said farmers wanted to know where did the money sent by the Centre to dig wells go.
Rahul said after his visit to parts of Bundelkhand in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a package of Rs 4,750 crore was sanctioned for the region.
He then asked the people if even one jobless youth had got employment under it, to which the crowd responded with a loud "no".
At a rally in Indora, Rahul spoke for empowering the youth and pointed to people placed last in the crowd and said that he wanted MLAs and MPs to come from that section.
Accusing BJP of trying to divide the nation and damaging the country's secular fabric, Rahul invoked the Muzzafarnagar riots and said that Pakistani agencies were approaching some of the victims to lure them to terrorism.
