Social Activist Medha Patkar joining Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra triggered a political row in Gujarat on Friday. BJP has accused the assembly of both 'anti-Gujarat' and 'anti-Gujarati'.
Amid the Gujarat election campaign, the BJP hit out at the Congress with CM Bhupendra Patel tweeted, "Congress and Rahul Gandhi have time and again shown their animosity towards Gujarat and Gujaratis. By giving Medha Patkar a central place in his Yatra, Rahul Gandhi shows that he stands with those elements who denied water to Gujaratis for decades. Gujarat will not tolerate this.”
In August, Patel had been the first BJP leader to raise Patkar in this poll campaign, using her former association with the Aam Aadmi Party to attack it. He had referred to her as an “urban Naxal”.
Stating similar opinions, state BJP chief CR Paatil also took to Twitter and said, "Urban naxal Medha Patkar impeded the development of Kutch and the whole of Gujarat by opposing the Narmada project. Today, the Congress is doing the Bharat Todo yatra with the urban naxal who was against the development of Gujarat. Gujarat will never support those who have taken urban naxals on their side."
Without mentioning any name, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will campaign in Valsad on Saturday, tweeted: “The anti-Gujarat agenda of the opposition is being comprehensively rejected."
On the official Twitter account, the Bharat Jodo Yatra Movement said, "When you do something for the society, people involved in social welfare themselves join you... Social activist Medha Patkar participated in 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'."
Patkar spearheaded the 'Narmada Bachao Andolan', the movement against Gujarat’s Sardar Sarovar Project. The project has been a central part of Modi's Gujarat development project. The movement represented the agitation of people who were displaced by the Narmada Valley Development Project, a large-scale project to build the dam around Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi continued on the 13th day of its Maharashtra leg on Saturday, and women are expected to join the foot march in large numbers during the day on the occasion of former prime minister Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary.
