Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh), Sep 26 (IANS): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Thursday said he was fighting for the common people and wanted to see them empowered.

"My fight is for the common people, for the poor and weaker sections and I want them to be empowered," Gandhi said at a rally at historic Lalbag ground in Jagdalpur, headquarters of Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated but impoverished Bastar region which is plagued by leftist militancy since the late 1980s.

Pointing towards tribal youths at the rally, he urged them to join politics and assured them he was ready to support them.

The Congress vice president hit out at Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime for its claims of development and security in the state.

Recalling the deadly attack by Maoists on Congress convoy at a national highway in Bastar region May 25 in which 32 people mostly the senior state Congress leaders including state party chief Nandkumar Patel were killed, he said: "The killings of Patel, Mahendra Karma and others in Bastar jungles were basically the effort to stifle the voice of the people of Chhattisgarh."

"There are two types of people in politics, one who fights for people and another who fights for himself... Nandkumar Patel was a leader of people and there was an attempt made to suppress the voice he was trying to raise."

"There were 32 people killed in the attack on a national highway... where was the Chhattisgarh government?" he asked.