Rahul to visit Kalahandi today, may put spotlight on KBK region

Bhubaneswar: At a time BJD in the state is bracing for a possible CBI crackdown on some of its leaders in chit fund scams and the BJP government at the Centre is facing criticism for allegedly misusing vital institutions in the country, Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled visit to Bhawanipatna in Kalahandi district on Wednesday has enthused party cadres in Odisha.
This will be Rahul’s second visit to the state in less than two weeks; he had addressed a massive public gathering at Tamando in Bhubaneswar on January 25. On Wednesday, he will also visit Rourkela.

“Our morale is high. The people of the state have realized that BJD is neck-deep in corruption and has patronized chit fund companies. The BJP, meanwhile, has lost the people’s confidence as it has destroyed key institutions in the country through its government at the Centre. Be it with the Supreme Court or the Reserve Bank of India, and now the CBI, the high-handed approach of BJP is obvious,” Congress state working president Pradeep Majhi said.

Rahul, who during his previous visit, had come down heavily on both governments for allegedly failing to bring about development in the state, is likely to talk about Kalahandi’s poverty and backwardness on Wednesday. The Congress president, who has drawn flak for backing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s campaign against the CBI despite having criticised her in the past for patronising chit fund companies in the state, is likely to raise the ponzi issue as well. During his previous visit to the state, too, he had raised the matter in Bhubaneswar, even accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of exercising ‘control’ over chief minister Naveen Patnaik by using the threat of CBI raids on BJD leaders.

Rahul, who had made a host of pro-farmer promises in Bhubaneswar, is also expected to raise the problems of unemployment and lack of development in the Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) region.

Former Union minister and senior Congress leader from Kalahandi, Bhakta Charan Das, said Rahul would throw in his support for poor tribals, farmers and the unemployed youth in the KBK region. After landing in Kalahandi in a chopper, Rahul is likely to interact with the party’s workers in the blocks and panchayats of the region before addressing the public gathering.

“We will win under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The recent electoral victories of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh will be replicated in Odisha,” Das said.

Expectations among the locals in Kalahandi are high as Rahul, who had thrown his weight behind the tribes of the Niyamgiri hills in the district in their fight against bauxite mining by Vedanta in 2008 and 2010, is returning to the district after around a decade.

The party hopes that Rahul can revive its crumbling base in KBK, where BJP had made strides by sweeping the zilla parishad (ZP) elections in 2017. The saffron party had grabbed 88 out of the 186 seats in eight KBK districts. In Kalahandi, Congress had bagged just two ZP seats out of 36.