Mayawati beats Rahul to meet bereaved family

New Delhi: All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and Member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi (Uttar Pradesh) Rahul Gandhi is visiting Etawah on Saturday to console the Dalit family whose members were shot dead earlier this week.

Five members of a Dalit family were shot dead allegedly by members of the same community over a land dispute at Aminabad village in Etawah district on Thursday.

Rahul's concern for Dalits is being viewed as an attempt to strengthen the base of the Congress party among Dalits, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier he spent a night with a Dalit family in Amethi.

The UP Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh says Rahul would give money towards the education of the girls orphaned in the tragedy.

"Rahul Gandhi was there at the house for about 40-45 minutes and promised a fixed deposit of Rs 2.5 lakh. The family also discussed about the woes and the worries they facing here after the killings," Singh said.

Vimla Devi, sister of one of the victim, said that she asked Rahul for help.

"He asked me all the details of the incident and I narrated him everything. I did ask him help and he has raised his concerns over the issue. He has assured me the help in the form of education for the kids," Vimla Devi said.

"When asked to Tripti (the five-year old girl who was the lone survivor) with whom she would prefer to live she has assured him that she will be staying with us. He sat with us and discussed everything," Rakesh, Vimla Devi's, husband said.

However, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and UP Chief Minister Mayawati has already visited the bereaved family before Rahul.

Mayawati visited Aminabad on Friday, nearly 12 hours before Rahul arrived, coincidentally on BSP founder Kanshi Ram's 74th birth anniversary.

She stopped at the village while returning from Varanasi where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on a two-day visit and announced that agricultural land will be given to the next of the kin of the five Dalits massacred.

The government will also bear the cost of education and marriage of the four children and one of their relatives, who escaped the killings. She also ordered the suspension of the area SHO who's been blamed of laxity.

Mayawati is holding a rally in Lucknow to mark Kanshi Ram's birth anniversary.

She has also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking that UP be trifurcated into three separate states - Purvanchal, Bundelkhand and Harit Pradesh.

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