Dashrath Manjhi (L) and Rahul Gandhi (R).
Credit: Wikipedia, PTI photo
Patna: Bhagirath Manjhi, son of 'Mountain Man' Dashrath Manjhi, on Wednesday alleged that he was denied a Congress ticket for the Bihar assembly polls despite an assurance from party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Speaking to reporters, Bhagirath Manjhi claimed he had stayed in Delhi for four days, met the leader of opposition, Rahul Gandhi, and submitted the required documents, but was not given a ticket.
"I had requested Rahul Gandhi for an assembly ticket. He had assured me that I would get one, but it did not happen. I had sought a ticket either from Barachhati or Bodh Gaya. Everyone else got tickets, but not me," Manjhi said.
Gandhi had visited the Dashrath Manjhi memorial at Gehlaur, around 40 km from Gaya, in June and paid floral tribute to the statue of the ‘Mountain Man’.
Gehlaur has become a major tourist attraction for Dashrath Manjhi's feat of carving a road through a hill single-handedly.
The Congress leader also met and interacted with Manjhi's family members at Gehlaur village. A few days after the visit, Gandhi got a pucca house constructed for Manjhi's family in the village.
Bhagirath Manjhi, who quit Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) last year to join the Congress in February, had publicly expressed his desire to contest the assembly polls soon after joining the party.
Commenting on it, BJP's national spokesperson Guru Prakash said, "This shows the anti-Dalit mindset of Congress leaders, especially Rahul Gandhi. Despite assurance of an assembly ticket to Bhagirath, Gandhi did not give him one".