Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Friday said that the Congress had sidelined Sardar Patel and had promoted members of only one family.
Rupani was speaking at the flagging off function of the "Ekta Yatra" chariot in Bardoli town in Surat district.
The chariot, with a statue of Sardar Patel as well as an LED screen, will cover around 5,000 villages to make people aware of Patel's contribution in uniting the country.
The Ekta Yatra is being organised by the ruling BJP government ahead of the unveiling of the Statue of Unity, dedicated to Sardar Patel, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31.
The yatra will be held in two phases and would cover 10,000 villages in the state.
"Unfortunately, for 40 years, these people (Congress) did not put up Sardar Patel's portrait in the Parliament," Rupani told the gathering at Bardoli.
"They (Congress) only talked about one family. People were told the history of that family only. Sardar Patel was sidelined. Luckily, Modi ji has decided to give a fitting tribute to Sardar by making a grand statue of his, which, at 182 metres, is the tallest in the world," the Gujarat CM said.
The Statue of Unity is located on Sadhu Bet island near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada River.
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