Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi listens to the woes of the villagers during her three-day visit to Raebareli on Monday.
Clasping Ms. Gandhi’s hand, the middle-aged woman took the Congress chief, who interacted with residents of Aghoura village here on the first day of her three-day stay, to her dilapidated hut which didn’t even have a charpoy.
After the woman narrated her woes, a visibly moved Ms. Gandhi asked her representative to ensure that the woman gets an Indira Awas house and other benefits. All the while Vidyavati held Ms. Gandhi’s hands while cameras clicked on.
Dressed in a striped brown sari with her head covered, Ms. Gandhi, who is affectionately called ‘Bahu’ (daughter-in-law) by elderly women in her constituency, frequently got down from her vehicle to accept their greetings.
“Where is the ADM?” Ms. Gandhi asked when the women pointed to the anomalies in various schemes and complained that they were not getting food grains.
With her party locked in a turf war for Dalit votes, Ms. Gandhi mostly chose to hold the ‘chaupal’ meetings at the houses of Dalits, sitting on a charpoy amid men and women and chatting about their day-to-day problems.
The Congress president also visited the house of Rameshwar Pasi in the same village, where the conditions were no different.
