India / Rahul plans tractor rally, meetings with farmers during 2-day visit to Raj

Jaipur: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will arrive on a two-day visit to Rajasthan on February 12 in an attempt to strengthen the party’s base among farmers who are agitating against the central farm laws.

Gandhi will arrive in Hanumangarh district on the morning of February 12. He will address a farmers’ meeting at the Pilibanga mandi and another one at the Padampura mandi in neighbouring Sriganganagar district.

On February 13, Gandhi will begin the day with a visit to the Sursura Tejaji temple in Kishangarh and then take out a tractor rally in Rupangarh. He will hold farmer meetings in Parbatsar and Makrana towns in Nagaur district.

The Congress party is backing the farmers’ agitation and has called for a repeal of the three central farm laws which they say are anti-farmer and pro-business.

The Congress has carefully chosen those venues for Gandhi’s visit, picking locales where the farmers’ agitation has found most support in the state.

Both Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts in north Rajasthan border the state of Punjab ,where the agitation by farmers is the most vehement. Nagaur is seen as the hub of farmers’ politics with a large presence of the Jat community.

According to state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara, the tractor rally will be 60 km long, starting from Kisahngarh and ending in Makrana. Gandhi will join the rally en route.

This is Gandhi’s first visit to the state since the political crisis last year when former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot revolted against the state leadership and almost toppled the government of chief minister Ashok Gehlot. Gandhi’s meeting is also being seen as yet another attempt to end the cold war between Pilot and Gehlot and try to forge a semblance of unity in the divided party.

Since after the political crisis, Gehlot and Pilot have maintained a distance. Pilot, who was stripped of his post of deputy prime minister and state Congress chief, has been undertaking visits to different parts of the state in a bid to keep his base among party workers and the public intact.

Gandhi’s visit will be keenly observed by leaders and political analysts to see who all will share space with the leader during his visit and if Pilot is also accommodated along with Gehlot.