Rahul Gandhi walks 20-km in scorching Vidarbha heat

Rahul began his ‘sanvad padyatra’ from Gunji village on Thursday morning, and many people were seen lined up on roads at Kondhali and Talegaon villages to greet the Congress leader.

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In total, Rahul visited five villages between Gunji to Tonglabad, wherein he spoke to people who greeted him and sought to know their problems and the issues affecting them.

At some places, villagers were seen waiting with garlands and some of them performed ‘aarti’ when the Congress vice president passed by their houses even as some women drew ‘rangolis’ to welcome him.

Rahul was followed by a huge contingent of Congress workers, including members of the Youth Congress, and they found it difficult to match his pace.

Accompanied by local MLA Virendra Jagtap, AICC general secretary and former Union minister Mukul Wasnik and others, Rahul also visited the newly-built Buddha Vihar in Shashpur village.

He squatted on a mattress at a Hanuman temple in Hirapur in Dhamangaon taluka and gave a patient hearing to the farmers who narrated their woes.

During his interaction with media at the fag end of the ‘padyatra’ at Tonglabad, Rahul deprecated the Narendra Modi government at Centre and the BJP for pursuing “pro-corporate” policies at the expense of farmers and the poor.

Rahul was joined in his padyatra by MPCC president Ashok Chavan, opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, local MLAs, state Youth Congress president Vishwajeet Kadam and other leaders.