Rahul Gandhi eats, prays, shows love in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday visited temples, a dargah, a garment factory and MTR restaurant while praising Bengaluru city as part of his election campaign.The Congress chief resumed his election campaign on Wednesday and started his trail from the Dodda Ganapathy Temple in Basavanagudi. He then kicked off a roadshow from Bull Temple Road — along the length of which hundreds of supporters had gathered.  He was accompanied by AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal and Energy Minister D K Shivakumar.

On Siddapura Road, some supporters tried to chase the van to click selfies with Rahul. Though they were initially discouraged by the security personnel, they were allowed to click selfies reportedly on Rahul’s insistence. Rahul then interacted with women workers of a garment factory at Suddaguntepalya off Hosur Road. He was accompanied by Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy. He then visited the Hazrat Tawakkal Mastan Shah Dargah in Cottonpet where he was greeted by a rapturous crowd. Another Roadshow followed, after which the convoy left for Shivajinagar.

Rahul had lunch at the iconic MTR restaurant near Lalbagh — where he had a full course meal. Rahul next visited the Veeranjaneya Temple in New Tippasandra, and followed it up with another roadshow. He was accompanied by party’s CV Raman Nagar candidate and Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj. Rahul garlanded a statue of Kempegowda.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the Prime Minister had snatched away money from the poor and given it to jeweller Nirav Modi. Ramping up his attack, he countered Modi’s allegation that the country had not progressed in the 70 years after independence. “Haven’t you and your parents built this city, the IT capital of India? If Modi says nothing happened before his rule, he insults you and your parents,” Rahul said. He added that while the UPA government had given Bengaluru `10,000 crores, the Modi government had only given it `550 crores.