Social media companies can make any party win election: Rahul Gandhi on Yatra Day 70

Rahul alleged communal violence was being used as a strategic weapon to cause disharmony in society by one ideology and its leaders. “India at the moment is as per the vision of a powerful urban elite and it can only be smashed with the right way of thinking and it is our duty to refine that vision,” he said. Later in the day, Rahul addressed a meeting at Medshi in Washim district of Vidarbha region. “Our yatra seeks to take along everyone with us without hatred or violence. We don’t leave anyone behind but instead we pick up those who have fallen. On the contrary, there are those patriots sitting in power in Delhi and similarly there are a few in Maharashtra. (PM) Narendra Modi is in Delhi. I don’t know which party those in (power) in Maharashtra belong to or what I should refer to,” he said.

Shinde, formerly number two in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, rebelled against Thackeray, who was heading the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, and formed a government with BJP’s help. Ever since, Shinde has been claiming that he is the real Sena and even claimed the right to party symbol ‘bow and arrow’. The Election Commission has now given the name ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ to Shinde while Thackeray’s Sena is named as ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’. The dispute between the two sides is yet to reach a final conclusion. The Congress was a part of the MVA government. Thackeray’s son Aaditya joined Rahul in the yatra in Nanded in a show of unity.

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate said the party will bring in the Old Pension Scheme in the same manner in which it was brought in Congress-ruled states such as Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. “…There are three lakh government employees in Himachal, all that they seek is OPS. So the governments… have to respond to the needs of people,” said Srinate.