Congress Party’s senior leader Rahul Gandhi surprised his party supporters in Bengaluru by dropping by, as the state gears up for the elections. The official Twitter handle of the party showed Gandhi interacting with gig workers and delivery partners at Bengaluru’s iconic Airlines Hotel. The delivery partners belonged to various service apps like Zomato, Swiggy and BlinkIt, and were seen enjoying plates of piping hot masala dosa and cups of Bengaluru’s famous coffee.
Gandhi was seen addressing the various challenges of these workers – discussing employment stability and the rise in costs for commodities. He was seen showing keen interest in understanding the workers’ motivations behind taking up these jobs and their basic working conditions. He was also later seen hitching a ride on a delivery partner’s bike to his hotel that was just two kilometres away.
It is said that this visit was part of Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, where he has attempted to reach out to the masses directly through spontaneous public meetings and gatherings. His previous visits have included a visit to old Delhi market to Ramzan, to sample the festive special dishes as well as having lunch at a Delhi University men’s hostel.
Reports suggest that Gandhi will be making appearances over a series of events organised in the city tomorrow as well. In his interactions with the delivery workers, he promised to set up a Gig Workers’ Welfare Board with a corpus of three thousand crores as well as minimum hourly wages for workers in the unorganised labour sector.