Wayanad: Over the years, the politics of Rahul Gandhi changed. As the Leader of the Opposition and Congress MP puts it while campaigning for his sister Priyanka Gandhi at Wayanad on Monday, his perspective in politics changed due to Wayanad and after he came to the place, he started using the word ‘love’ in politics.
“…When I first went on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, I was a bit surprised because it was a political walk. The purpose of the walk was political…but at the beginning of the yatra already I noticed that I was hugging people and people were kissing me. I was saying, I love you. They were saying, we love you,” the LOP recalled.
While he was on his way to Wayanad on an aircraft on Monday, the Congress MP realized that he hadn’t used the word ‘love’ in politics for long. “After I came to Wayanad suddenly I started using the word ‘love’ in politics. I realized that it was because the people of Wayanad gave me so much love and affection that my entire politics changed…” he said, adding that the only weapon to counter hatred and violence was love and affection.
#WATCH | Wayanad, Kerala: Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi says "…When I first went on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, I was a bit surprised because it was a political walk. The purpose of the walk was political…but at the beginning of the yatra already I noticed that I was… pic.twitter.com/xBostYM9fO
— ANI (@ANI) November 11, 2024
The leader said after the Bharat Jodo Yatra whenever people would meet him and tell him that they loved him, he would also reciprocate by saying that he loved them. That’s because people of Wayand taught him ‘that that the word (love) has a very important place in politics.’
The leader then goes on to flaunt his ‘I love Wayand’ t-shirt and said he was wearing it because of the realization about importance of love in politics. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has made her electoral debut in politics as she is fighting the Wayanad bypolls, which has been necessitated as the seat fell vacant after Rahul Gandhi—who is representing Rae Bareli in the Lok Sabha—resigned from the Wayanad MP post.
