Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday concluded his fourth and last phase of the Navsarjan Gujarat Yatra — a campaign covering all four regions of Gujarat.

On the last day of his 3-day visit to North Gujarat, a crucial Patidar base, Rahul lashed out at the Gujarat government for assaulting Patidar communities during the August 2015 reservation agitation.

Connect with tribals Covering the crucial Patidar and OBC belt of North Gujarat in Patan and Mehsana districts and places like Becharaji, Visnagar, Rahul also interacted with the nomadic tribes and de-notified tribes and listened to their plight.

Rahul assured them of support, “We are preparing a people’s manifesto. I urge you to submit your demands and recommendations to the manifesto committee, which is headed by Sam Pitroda, Madhusudan Mistry and Bharatsinh Solanki. We will consider all your issues.”

Single GST slab During his three-day visit, Rahul claimed credit for pushing the government to reduce the GST rates in the GST Council meeting last week.

“Still, there is a need for massive structural change in the GST rates. India doesn’t want five different tax slabs, but only one. Congress was clear from the beginning on 18 per cent slab, but Modi ji neither listens to the opposition party nor the people. When the Congress will come back into power at Centre, it would try to reduce GST below 18 per cent.”

Massive crowds At Mehsana, Rahul stated that the ruling BJP has thrashed Patidars in their houses. Notably, North Gujarat was the epicentre for the Patidar reservation agitation after Hardik Patel first started his agitation in this region around June 2015.

Rahul’s convoy was received by the massive crowd in Mehsana, who chanted in favour of Rahul and Sardar Patel. The Congress party had received got 18 out of 32 assembly seats in North Gujarat.

The Congress leader had already completed three such tours of Saurashtra, Central and South Gujarat as part of the Yatra.

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