Rahul continues footmarch in UP, BSP calls it stunt

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As he entered Aligarh district on the second day of his footmarch today, Rahul Gandhi took on Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati for “forcible” acquisition of land from farmers at cheap prices.

The 41-year-old AICC general secretary also said that the Mayawati government must understand its responsibilities and regretted that farmers, whose land is being acquired, come to know of the acquisition only at the end of the process.

Amidst heavy police deployment and prohibitory orders in force, Mr Gandhi reached Aligarh district from the adjoining Gautam Budh Nagar district where he started his “kisan padyatra” yesterday. A Congress-backed kisan mahapanchayat is being held on Saturday.

"The Congress leader reached Bhudasa village within the limits of Aligarh district this evening where he held a chaupal with the farmers and interacted with them at a primary school," Congress sources said here.
"Currently Rahul Gandhi is in Siarol village. He is on padyatra and we are not stopping him," senior superintendent of police Aligarh Satyendra Veer Singh said.

Mr Singh had earlier said Mr Gandhi’s “kisan padyatra” would be a “clear violation” of prohibitory orders in force if it enters Aligarh district. He had also clarified that if there is no apprehension of law and order problem, the authorities might choose not to prevent Mr Gandhi’s entry into the district.

Keeping Ms Mayawati firmly on his cross-hairs, Mr Gandhi during his interactions with villagers while trudging the dusty tracks of Western Uttar Pradesh alongside the controversial under construction Yamuna expressway corridor said the magnitude in which land was being acquired in UP was not happening anywhere else.

Extolling the farmers and people to share their stories with him, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family said he has come to hear them.

Resuming his march after a night halt at a farmer's house at Rampur Bangar, Mr Gandhi said "It's ok if the land is being acquired for road. Roads should be constructed and development must take place, but here land is being taken for colony," he said in Alawalpur in Gautam Budh Nagar district.

The ruling BSP on its part attacked Rahul terming his padyatra as merely a "stunt and a political drama" in view of the coming assembly elections.