Kisan rally: Rahul Gandhi to attend protest against land acquisition bill on April 19

NEW DELHI: Ending the suspense over Rahul Gandhi’s ‘ghar vapsi’ from his sabbatical, AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh has said the party vice-president will attend a farmers rally against land acquisition bill on April 19 in Delhi. The announcement came minutes after a meeting of AICC functionaries, presided over by AK Antony, finalised the rally date.

Party leaders have been saying Gandhi could be back by April first week. Last Saturday, Sonia Gandhi had told reporters in Ayodhya that her son "will be back soon."

"All senior Congress leaders will attend the kisan rally…Rahul Gandhi is one of our senior leaders", Digvijaya Singh told the media on Monday evening when asked whether Gandhi will be present at the rally.

The rally date, on the eve of the resumption of the second half of the budget session, is evidently fixed to make it an occasion to showcase Gandhi who has proceeded on a sabbatical since February 22, when the budget session began. While the leadership officially said Gandhi had gone on leave for "reflecting on the recent events", the party has not disclosed the venue of his sabbatical, triggering speculations about possible venues both at home and abroad.

Along with Gandhi, all senior party leaders are expected to attend the rally, expected to be a big political show. Congress has decided to make its opposition to the Modi government’s amendments to the land acquisition bill a major political plank. Party sources also said Congress president Sonia Gandhi will also tour Madhya Paresh on April 2 and visit those areas where farmers had lost their crops due to the recent untimely rains.

She had taken similar tours of Haryana and Rajasthan recently and is expected to tour parts of Punjab and Maharashtra too.