Sonia to visit Rae Bareli

Lucknow, July 25 (IANS) Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi will Thursday begin a two-day visit to her parliamentary constituency Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, party leaders said.

During her first visit to the state after the party's poor show in the assembly elections earlier this year, Gandhi will meet party leaders and interact with residents, they said.

She will also take part in a meeting of the district monitoring committee and will assess the progress made in projects funded by the central government.

According to party leaders, Gandhi will also inaugurate some roads in the constituency.

"With the Lok Sabha polls just two years away, she will also be listening to the voice of people to assess the standing of the party, specially after the drubbing in the assembly polls," a Congress leader said.

Party leaders said Gandhi may take up organisational matters with the state leaders as Congress general secretary and her son Rahul Gandhi recently submitted an informal report to her on "matters of importance" that needed to be "settled fast" to shore up the sagging fortunes of the party in the state.