Home India News Sonia mourns Venkataraman’s death, cancels functions

Sonia mourns Venkataraman’s death, cancels functions

By IANS,

Lucknow : Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to her constituency Rae Bareli, cancelled all public functions Wednesday following the death of former president R. Venkataraman.

“Soniaji has called off the inaugural function of the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER),” Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh told IANS Wednesday.

He said Gandhi will also not inaugurate the hostel at the Feroz Gandhi Engineering and the customer care centre at the BSNL building.

On the proposed visit to villages by the chairperson of India’s ruling United Progressive Alliance, Singh said: “She might interact with some villagers to get feedback on the status of development in villages before leaving Rae Bareli in the afternoon.”

Gandhi, who arrived in Rae Bareli Tuesday, launched the country’s third rail coach factory here, built at a cost of Rs.20 billion ($408 million), promising jobs to at least 8,000 people.