"First time, Lok Sabha elections being fought to save Constitution": Rahul Gandhi

Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], May 14 : Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said that this is the first time that the Lok Sabha elections are being fought to safeguard the Constitution, without which people from various sections of the society will lose their rights.
Rahul Gandhi addressed a joint rally with Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi where both leaders attacked PM Modi for neglecting the interests of the farmers.
"For the first time, this fight, this election is to save the Constitution. Whatever you have got, whether you are poor, farmers, labourers, backward, Dalits, adivasis, minorities, poor general caste has been given by this book (Constitution). Without this (Constitution) the poor people of India won't belong anywhere," Rahul Gandhi said speaking at a joint campaign at Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi with INDIA bloc partner, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress party along with Akhilesh Yadav is trying to protect the Constitution.
Both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP), members of the opposition INDIA bloc addressed a joint rally in support of Pradeep Jain, the Congress candidate from Jhansi, and Ajendra Rajput, the SP candidate from the adjacent constituency of Hamirpur.
"The day this (Constitution) is gone, your land rights, reservation, public sector everything will be gone. INDIA alliance, Akhilesh Yadav, Kharge and I are protecting this Constitution, framed by Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, Lohia," the Congress MP said.
Rahul Gandhi challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party saying that no power in the world will be able to destroy the Constitution.
"The BJP, RSS, Narendra Modi want to destroy, tear up and throw away this book (Constitution). I would like to challenge them from Jhansi, from Rani Laxmibai's place, that no power in this world can finish off this Constitution, let alone Narendra Modi or the RSS," he said.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi said that when there was a shortage of ventilators and oxygen during the pandemic, PM Modi allegedly asked countrymen to "bang thalis" and switch on the lights of mobile phones.
"During Covid, all of you bore the brunt, you lost someone from your family, your relatives. There were heaps of dead bodies in the Ganga, there were no ventilators or oxygen. And PM Modi asked you to bang thalis. The media applauded him. People were celebrating amid Covid. When that did not work, PM Modi asked you to switch on the lights of your mobile phones," Rahul Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi claimed that the BJP government confiscates land from people giving excuses of the Defence Corridor to divert their attention.
"When it comes to confiscating your land, they give excuses of Defence Corridor and other things to divert your mind and take away your land in minutes," he said.
Hitting out at the BJP, Rahul Gandhi said that the government has put up "umbrellas" in the name of "smart cities."
"When I was coming I saw umbrellas on the way. On asking, they said that this is a smart city. If smart cities are constructed like this, the INDIA bloc will set up umbrellas everywhere and there will be no problem. They said they will set up 100 smart cities. Instead, they have put up umbrellas. This is the wonder of the BJP," he said.
The Lok Sabha election 2024 in Uttar Pradesh has been scheduled in seven phases. Votes polled in the seven phases of the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha election 2024 will be counted on June 4.
In the 2019 elections, turning the arithmetic of the SP-BSP 'Mahagatbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh upside down, the BJP and its ally Apna Dal (S) won 64 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats. The partners in the alliance, Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP could only muster 15 seats.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19.