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Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party leader KC Venugopal visits a landslide-hit area, in Wayanad district on Friday, August 2, 2024. (Inset: Shehzad Poonawala)
Credit: PTI Photos
BJP has slammed Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who visited landslide-hit Wayanad, by flagging a number of videos that have cropped up on social media where people are purportedly venting their frustration against their former MP.
"Reel Neta Rahul Gandhi gets taste of “real” anger of people," BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala said in a post on social media platform X.
"Many in Wayanad are seen expressing their anger against their resigned MP Rahul Gandhi. One person can be heard saying, 'We worked & voted for him, he became MP. But now we don't need him here,'" Poonawala further alleged.
He goes on to point out another video in which a person purportedly says that because of Gandhi's visit, locals had to stay hungry for hours, and that "shops with essential supplies were forcefully closed, trucks with food and water were stopped because of his 'VIP' photo op visit'."
Another person purportedly said that the Gandhi scion was "more concerned about keeping his legs and feet clean so did not step out of the car".
Flagging these alleged grievances, Poonawala went on to say that "Rahul must stoping action like LoP- Leader of photography…. And try to behave like a Leader of the People.. Kerala & especially Wayanad is feeling cheated & short changed.. (sic)"
Rahul Gandhi on Friday described the landslides in Wayanad district of Kerala as a "terrible tragedy" of such magnitude that the state has not seen till now in a single area, and said it "demands a unique and urgent response".
The Congress MP said he would raise the matter in Delhi and also with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as "this is a different level of tragedy and should be treated differently".
Right now the focus is on finding the bodies and potential survivors, making sure the displaced persons are comfortable in the camps, and rehabilitating them, he said.
The Congress MP said that rehabilitation is going to be very important, as a lot of the survivors told him they did not want to go back to the landslide-hit areas.
(With PTI inputs)
Disclaimer: DH has not independently verified any of the videos mentioned above.