Rahul meets GHMC workers, auto drivers in Gachibowli, promises wage increase, job security

Telangana: As a part of the election campaign in the state, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday interacted with the gig workers, GHMC workers and auto drivers in Gachibowli, Hyderabad.

Rahul Gandhi promised insurance and welfare board for gig workers, regularisation and timely increments of salary for GHMC sanitation workers, Rs 12,000, formation of a welfare board, a single permit option and 50 per cent off on pending challans for auto drivers.

It may be recalled that BRS working president KT Rama Rao also met with the gig workers a day ago and assured them of support from the State government for their welfare. He said that a meeting would be convened in January with the companies to ensure that health insurance, provident funds and ESI were provided for gig workers as it would ensure job security for them. KTR also promised to set up a Tripartite Welfare Board for the three lakh gig workers working in the state soon after returning to power on December 3.

During the interaction, a few workers explained how a few companies had removed incentives and had not increased fare prices. Responding positively to them, the BRS working president said that these companies operated not only in Telangana but also in other states and countries.

Rahul hits out at BJP from Nampally

Later, Rahul Gandhi, while addressing an election rally in Nampally, alleged that the RSS and prime minister Narendra Modi are ‘hardliners’ spreading hatred in the entire country. “Congress opened a ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’ (shop of love) in the ‘nafrat ka bazaar’ (market of hate),” he said, speaking of how the Congress came up with the slogan during his Bharat Jodo Yatra.

On the last day of election campaign, the siblings Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi were together at a road show.

He added that even as he fights Modi, 24 cases have been filed against him in various states and the courts summons him from time to time.

“First time, for defamation, I got two years’ punishment. My Lok Sabha membership was cancelled. My government house was taken away. I said I don’t want it. My home is in the hearts of the crores of poor people in the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, an MP-MLA court in Uttar Pradesh on Monday summoned Gandhi in a 2018 defamation case over alleged objectionable comments he made against Union minister Amit Shah. Rahul Gandhi made no reference to the UP court summoning him in his speech at Nampally here.

“The fight is ideological and I cannot compromise on it,” Gandhi said while addressing the gathering.

'AIMIM helping BJP’

Attacking AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, he asked how many cases are there against him. Claiming that agencies like the ED and the CBI are chasing Rahul all the time, Gandhi asked if any agency was behind Owaisi.

“The question is why there are no cases against Owaisi, and the answer is that the AIMIM president helps Modi,” he claimed. He also accused AIMIM of fielding its candidates to damage the Congress and help the BJP in various states.

“My aim is to erase hatred in the country and, for that, Modi should be defeated in Delhi,” Rahul Gandhi said. If Modi is to be defeated in Delhi, BRS president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao should be defeated in Telangana first, he said.

He alleged that the BRS, BJP and AIMIM are working together, and pointed out that the BRS had supported the Modi government in Parliament. He also sought to know if there were any cases against KCR. “He (KCR) runs the most corrupt government,” he alleged.