'To see his grandmother': Congress defends Rahul Gandhi's Italy visit after BJP's attack

Hitting back at the BJP for indulging in "low-level politics" over Rahul Gandhi's Italy visit, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the former party chief has gone to see his grandmother. Speaking to news agency ANI, KC Venugopal said that everyone has the right to undertake personal visits.

'BJP is indulging in low-level politics' 

"Rahul Gandhi has gone to see his grandmother. Is it wrong? Everybody has the right to undertake personal visits. BJP is indulging in low-level politics. They are targeting Rahul Gandhi because they want to target only one leader," KC Venugopal said. 

The reaction from Congress comes after several BJP leaders including Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan targetted Rahul Gandhi as he flew off to Italy on Sunday amid the farmers' protest and a day before party's foundation day. 

Earlier in the day, in a tweet in Hindi, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "The Congress is celebrating its 136th Foundation Day here and Rahul has run away." The BJP leader used the popular Hindi idiom 'Nau Do Gyarah (9 2 11)' in his tweet. On his tweet, a user commented that "Rahul Gandhi has nothing to do with the party", to which Shivraj replied, "Why not? He must have gone to celebrate a party."

'All talks and only drama'

Slamming the ex-Congress chief for leaving the country ahead of the new year, BJP leader Khushbu Sundar said that if Rahul Gandhi is concerned about farmers, he should have been with them on the streets and not fly off to Italy. She then said that she has not expected anything else from Rahul Gandhi, slamming the leader of doing "all talks and only drama". 

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PTI sources said Rahul Gandhi left for Milan in Italy on a Qatar Airways flight on Sunday morning. Rahul Gandhi is travelling amid the ongoing farmers' agitation against agricultural laws. He led a delegation which met President Ram Nath Kovind on December 17 and submitted the memorandum along with a purported 2 crore signatures of the farmers against the recently enacted laws.

The Congress MP also did not attend the meeting of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) leaders to review the party's performance in the local body elections. The state in-charge Tariq Anwar who is on a tour of Kerala is taking review meeting on the issue.

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(With agency inputs)