Rahul’s flood tourism gives serious threat to Modi’s reputation as the 'most-travelled leader'

It looks like Congress VP Rahul Gandhi wants to replace PM Narendra Modi as the most-travelled leader of the country.

New Delhi, August 4: It looks like Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has been badly bitten by the "flood" bug. That is why he is religiously visiting flood-hit states.

On Thursday, he was in Assam, where two-month long floods killed at least 83 people and affected around 25 lakh residents. A day later, on Friday, Rahul visited Rajasthan, again hit by floods.

As per reports, a total of 17 people lost their lives in Rajasthan floods. Several lakhs of people were badly affected by floods in the state. Rahul is also set to visit Gujarat on Friday.

At least 224 people have lost their lives and around 4.5 lakh people have been affected by floods in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Earlier, Modi did an aerial survey of Gujarat floods and announced Rs 500 crore as an interim relief measure. Modi's aerial survey of Gujarat floods elicited a lot of criticism for ignoring the plight of flood victims of Assam.

Thus, Modi recently visited Guwahati in Assam and had several meetings with chief ministers of various states from the Northeast to take stock of flood and landslide situations in the region.

Modi also announced a package of Rs 2,000 crore for the entire region as a part of the flood and landslide assistance step.

During his Assam visit, Rahul told flood-affected people of Lakhimpur district that his party would fight for their adequate compensation and rehabilitation. Lakhimpur district in Upper Assam is one of the worst flood-affected parts of the state.

A total of 13 people were killed in floods in Lakhimpur district. As a part of Assam visit, Rahul first arrived at Lilabari airport from where he went to flood-affected Jainpur village.

The village has been totally devastated after water was released from the Ranganadi hydroelectric power project in Arunachal Pradesh on July 11. Rahul then crossed the Ranganadi river in a small boat to reach Amtola.

"There are floods in Assam and I thought I must come to meet you and hear about your pain and understand the situation," Rahul told the people. "I will fight for compensation, which is your right," he added.

He also criticised both the state and the central governments for "neglecting" the flood-hit locals of the northeastern state.

On Friday, Rahul visited Devda village in Jalore district of Rajasthan to take stock of the situation caused by floods. Jalore district has been badly hit by the floods. Similarly in Gujarat, Rahul will visit Dhanera, which too has been badly-hit by the floods.

Rahul's sudden rush to visit flood-affected states across the country definitely needs to be appreciated, but it has come as a surprise to even his "silent" supporters as the Congess VP is not considered to be very "active".

On the contrary, it is PM Modi who leads a very busy life, rushing from one tarmac to another as he catches flights to multiple cities in a day's time.

In his three years as the PM, Modi has visited around 70 countries. His most recent visit was a three-day-long trip to Israel in July.

We wonder if Rahul continues to travel like this across the country to "fight for the rights of the people", soon he would be able to replace Modi as the "most-travelled leader" of the nation.

OneIndia News