By IANS,
New Delhi: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will be in Bihar on a two-day visit from Feb 1 to galvanise the state unit for assembly elections due to take place later this year.
Congress sources said that during the visit, he will take stock of the membership drive of the Youth Congress and address a meeting of Bihar Congress office-bearers. He will also interact with students and address conferences of minorities and weaker sections.
Gandhi will start his visit from Champaran, which is associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement.
He will interact with students of Lalit Narayan Mithila University in Darbhanga the same day and travel to Gaya to address a meeting of youth belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. He will address a meeting of extended Pradesh Congress Committee in the evening at Patna.
The Congress general secretary is scheduled to address a press conference in Patna Feb 2 and then interact with students at Patna Women’s College for an interaction with students.
He will address a meeting of youth belonging to other backward classes at Karakat in Rohtas district besides visiting Kishanganj and Bhagalpur, two districts which have a sizeable presence of minorities.
With the Youth Congress having launched a membership drive on Jan 12 as part of the process to conduct organisational elections in the state, Rahul Gandhi will interact with potential candidates at several places including Darbhanga, Patna, Gaya and Kishanganj. His visit is expected to give a boost to the membership drive, party sources said.
The sources said that the visit to the state had been delayed by some days due to infighting in Bihar Congress over the list of office-bearers which was declared earlier this month. Several senior state Congress leaders have demanded removal of state Congress chief Anil Sharma.
There was some controversy over Gandhi’s visit to a university in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government issued notice to the varsity for hosting the Congress leader without permission.
The BJP had also objected to the “political nature” of his comments during a visit to Goa University.
However, the Congress dismissed protests by the BJP and said that the party leader will continue to visit campuses to interact with students and answer their queries.