Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday visited the famous Vindhyachal temple in Mirzapur district and later offered a “chadar” at Kantit Sharif, the dargah of Hazrat Ismail Chisti.
He also expressed his anger at the Mayawati government during the second day of his visit to the state.
On Tuesday, the Congress MP had visited the Ravidas temple in Varanasi and has eaten at the “langar” (community meal).
Mr Gandhi, who had arrived in Varanasi on Tuesday on an unscheduled visit, also went to the house of Javed, a small-time gambler who had died last week when he jumped into the Ganga river to escape the police, and consoled his widow.
He then visited Harsinghpur village in Chilh block which is also famous for carpet weavers and interacted with villagers.
In this village, Mr Gandhi went to the home of a carpet weaver and asked about their problems. The weavers told him that their main problems included rampant corruption in UP, lack of access to markets within the state and the decline of weaving in UP due to absence of state government interest and support to the weavers.
He also held a chaupal in which he gave a patient hearing to the villagers.
Mr Gandhi said that UP was lagging behind in development and anger welled up inside him each time he visited the state.
“Wherever I go, I find there is acute shortage of water and power supply and living conditions are pathetic, I don’t know how you (people) live in such circumstances. I get angry when I come to UP,” he said, adding that the BSP government was not implementing the central government schemes in the state because of which people remained deprived of many essential facilities.