BHUBANESWAR: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to participate in the padayatra for farmers in Western Odisha districts during his visit to Odisha in the first week of June.
A meeting of senior Congress leaders will be held at Sundargarh on Tuesday to decide on Rahul Gandhi’s schedule. Though the date of Rahul’s visit is yet to be finalised, he is expected in Odisha on June 2. A senior Congress leader said as farmers in almost all Western Odisha districts have taken to streets against the State Government’s anti-farmer policy, Rahul may visit two or three places.
Rahul has already held padayatras in Maharashtra, Punjab and Telangana over issues of farmers. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Prasad Harichandan discussed the plan of State Congress to organise padayatras at different places with the party vice-president during his recent Delhi visit. Failures of BJP Government at the Centre and BJD here will be highlighted during padayatras.
Padayatra will be held in two phases. The first phase will be organised in Western Odisha districts and will be launched from Amko in Sundargarh. The second phase will be started from Baripada. Rahul is likely to join these padayatras at some places for 15 to 20 km.
Congress will conduct padayatra in western Odisha under leadership of former chief minister Hemananda Biswal. Besides Biswal, the meeting at Sundargarh will be attended by OPCC president, and Leader of Opposition Narasingh Mishra. Harichandan presided over a meeting of party leaders at Congress Bhavan here on Monday to discuss Rahul’s visit to State.
Prasanta Patnaik