Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appears to be in complete poll mode as he continues campaigning for the upcoming elections in four states and Puducherry.
If Rahul decided to go swimming with fishermen in Kerala's Kollam district last week, the Congress leader has kicked off this week by shaking a leg!
On Monday, Rahul was at the St. Joseph's Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Mulagumoodu in Kanyakumari district.
As has been his style with students, Rahul held a mass event with the people at the school, which was informal in nature. Rahul was invited to do a push-up challenge by Merolin Shenigha, a class-10 student who is Judo enthusiast. Rahul Gandhi is known to be a fitness enthusiast and is trained in the martial art of Aikido. A clip of the push-up challenge shared by Congress handles showed Rahul seemingly giving up before Merolin. However, Rahul then challenged her to do push-ups with one hand, saying, “now, we can make it difficult". Rahul then showed the student how to do a one-handed push-up, evoking cheers from the audience. Rahul also showed an Aikido move with a male student.
Rahul then participated in what seemed to be a group dance with the students, moving in sync by holding hands and waving hands.
Congress leader Dinesh Gundu Rao, who is the party in-charge for Tamil Nadu, joined in the dance. Rahul was quoted by Republic TV as saying, "PCC president and Dinesh, please come. I am not going down alone. If I am going to look bad, I am going to look bad with other people!”Rahul admitted the dancing was not good even as he complimented the girl who sang a song.
In December 2019, Rahul donned tribal gear and joined in a festive dance with a tribal community in Chhattisgarh.
In Tamil Nadu, however, Rahul wasn't only doing 'soft' events. Speaking at a rally in Nagercoil earlier on Monday, Rahul declared, "Tamil Nadu chief minister [K. Palaniswami] who bows to Prime Minister Narendra Modi will never be able to do this [represent Tamil people]. The chief minister should bow to the people of the state.”
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The RSS and Modi "insult Tamil language and culture", he said, adding the people should not allow them to gain a foothold.
"This election will show the same thing that only a person who truly represents the Tamil people can be a chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Is Tamil not an Indian language? Is Bengali not an Indian language? Is Tamil culture not Indian culture? This is the battle that is being fought in this election,” Rahul Gandhi said as the crowd cheered.
"It is my duty to protect the Tamil language, culture and history just as it is my duty to protect all languages and religions in India," the Wayanad MP said.
(With PTI inputs)