Rahul to visit Maharashtra, Amethi

Mumbai/Lucknow, April 26 (IANS) In his first major political engagements outside the national capital after the recent assembly polls, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will visit Maharashtra this week and his parliamentary constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh later this month.

Gandhi will arrive Mumbai Friday on a two-day visit to Maharashtra during which he will visit some drought-hit regions, a party office bearer said.

He will visit some of the worst drought-hit villages in Satara district on the second day of his visit, the party official said Thursday.

Gandhi will hold separate meetings with the party's state and district committees and Mumbai unit of the National Students Union of India, the Congress's students wing, in a Vile Parle auditorium.

Later, he will meet the office-bearers and elected representatives of the state and Mumbai Youth Congress at the same venue.

In the afternoon, he will go to south Mumbai and hold a meeting with district and block presidents of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee at the party headquarters in Tilak Bhavan, Dadar.

His final engagement Friday will be a meeting with the newly-elected members of the local self-government bodies at the Indian Gymkhana at Matunga, the office bearer said.

Gandhi had earlier visited Maharashtra in July 2011.

According to party sources, Gandhi will visit his Amethi from April 30-May 2.

It will be Gandhi's first visit to Uttar Pradesh after the party's drubbing in the assembly polls.

The sources said Gandhi is expected to restrict himself to his constituency during the visit and find out the reasons for the party's poor show in the assembly constituencies in Amethi.

Gandhi had campaigned aggressively during the February-March assembly polls, prompting party leaders to claim a tide in favour of the Congress which has been out of power in the state for 22 years.

The party, however, won only 28 constituencies out of the 403 in the state.

During his stay in Amethi, Gandhi would be restricting himself to 'interactions with party workers', sources said.