BHOPAL : Women collecting ‘mahua’ flowers under a tree in Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh had a surprise visitor on Tuesday morning — Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
On his way from Shahdol to Umaria, Gandhi stopped his motorcade on spotting women collecting flowers under a mahua tree. Surprised to see Rahul before them, the women showed him their small baskets containing flowers.
“Not bad,” was Gandhi’s reply as he tasted flowers from a basket and went on to know more about the process of collecting the flowers and the earning fetched by it.
“We come here around 3 am and start collecting the flowers. We either dry them up for our own edible use or sell it,” a woman told Gandhi. The Congress leader got pictures clicked and video shot with the women before leaving for Umaria aerodrome.
Mahua flowers are among the key minor forest produce that fetch an income to villagers. After Gandhi addressed rallies in Mandla and Shahdol constituencies, his helicopter could not fly on Monday evening due to inclement weather and delayed arrival of fuel for the copter from Jabalpur. He then stayed overnight in Shahdol and left on Tuesday early morning by road for Umaria, from where he flew to his next campaign stop.
Meanwhile, former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a jibe at Gandhi and Congress after the copter did not fly. “Gandhi and his party are both running out of fuel,” Chouhan said.