Winding up his 15-km eventful padayatra in the rural Adilabad District of Telangana, All India Congress Committee vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running the country for two or three industrialist friends / corporate houses.

Mr. Gandhi, who arrived at Nirmal on Thursday night, for the Kisan Sandesh Yatra met five families of farmers in Mamda and Laxmanchanda mandals and consoled them. He also handed over cheques of Rs.2 lakh each to the five families before concluding his padayatra.

Addressing an impressive rally of farmers and Congress workers in this village in sweltering heat, Mr. Gandhi said: “If Mr. Modi and Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao had woken up to the farmer’s problems, he would not have taken up such a yatra.”

Speaking in Hindi, Mr. Gandhi charged that the Prime Minister and the TS Chief Minister of going back on promises of increasing Minimum Support Price and loan waiver respectively. “Everyone thought that `Acche Din' (Good Days) would come their way if the BJP was voted to power. But, Acche Din has come for Mr. Modi,” he said.

“Have your ever worn Rs.10-lakh worth suit. Our Prime Minister sports such costly suit. At the national level we have one Modi and a ‘mini’ Modi here in Telangana,’ he said taking a dig at Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao.”

Stating that his party was not against industrialisation, Mr. Gandhi observed that the manner in which the fertile agricultural lands were being acquired was not proper. “Industrialisation and prosperous farming should go hand in hand,” he said pointing out that he was against crony capitalism.

Advising the farmers, he said the agricultural land was gold but the NDA wants to have these lands given away to industrial friends. He explained the salient features of the Land Acquisition Act which was conceived by the then UPA Government. He said that the prices of lands especially those near the urban centres would go up.