Rahul Gandhi Hangs Out With Tribals In MP Village, Congress Leader Goes With Adivasi Women To Collect ‘Mahua’

Mr Gandhi stopped at the forested village when he spotted some tribal women collecting ‘mahua’, a forest produce, and joined them to gather the ‘mahua’ for them, a Congress leader here said.

He had interacted with the tribal women to understand their lifestyle.

A tribal woman narrated to him about their hard life, describing how they venture into the forest at around three in the morning everyday to collect ‘mahua’.

On being enquired by Mr Gandhi about their daily earnings, another tribal woman said that they collect around two baskets of ‘mahua’ in a day and sell them in the market after keeping a small part of it for their personal consumption.

The sale of ‘mahua’ fetch them around three hundred rupees per day, the tribal women said.

‘Mahau’ is used to produce a brew which is very popular among the tribals.

Mr Gandhi also had a taste of ‘mahua’ and said ‘not bad’, according to the Congress leader.

State Congress chief Jitu Patwari and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Umang Singhar accompanied Mr Gandhi during his visit to the forested village.

“Mr Gandhi took a chartered flight to Delhi from Shahdol on Tuesday morning”, Congress spokesman K K Mishra here said.

Mr Gandhi had an unscheduled night halt at Shahdol on Monday when his chopper failed to take off due to fuel shortage.

He was on a day’s tour to Madhya Pradesh on Monday to address two election meetings in Mandla (ST) and Shahdol (ST) Lok Sabha constituencies, which are going to polls in the first phase polling in Madhya Pradesh on April 19 along with four others.

He was scheduled to fly to Jabalpur from Shahdol to catch his flight to Delhi after winding up his day’s election tour to Madhya Pradesh on Monday evening.

But, he was forced to make a night halt in Shahdol when his chopper failed to take off due to fuel shortage.