Lok Sabha polls: Congressmen wash feet of dalits in Allahabad

ALLAHABAD: With the election season on, leaders of political parties are trying their best to woo the voters. Latest in this series, Congress party member and city general secretary Haseeb Ahamad along with other party workers washed the feet of people of dalit community, living in slums behind Unani College at Himmatganj locality of the city.
Members of the party arrived at the colony on Wednesday and washed the feet of three persons of the community including Ramesh Chandra Sonkar, Khilawan Sonkar and Geeta Bhartiya.
The Congress workers also propagated the scheme of the party’s ‘minimum income plan’ wherein an amount of Rs 72,000 would be provided to every poor, annually. Carrying the tri-colour and the poster of their leaders including Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, the party workers appealed to the voters to come out and poll on May 12, the date of polling at Allahabad and Phulpur Lok Sabha seat.
One of the dalits, Ramesh Sonkar said, “I am thrilled that I am honoured by someone from the Congress party because we are struggling to make the ends meet even after retiring from the post of assistant manager from ITI, Naini. My earn leave has not been paid by the company and I am somehow managing daily bread and butter in a meagre amount of Rs 3000 monthly, which I get as pension”.
During Kumbh 2019, PM Narendra Modi too had washed the feet of five cleaning staff members deputed at Kumbh Mela area.