Rahul Gandhi to meet farmers today

NEW DELHI: Back from his sabbatical, a rejuvenated Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is all set to revive efforts to position Congress as a party espousing the cause of farmers.

On the first day in office after his nearly two-month leave of absence, Gandhi took stock of the political situation. It was followed by a luncheon meeting with his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, at her 10 Janpath Road residence.

Following his ‘Bhatta Parsaul strategy’ of reaching out to the farmers, Gandhi will meet farmer groups from Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh on Saturday in his first public engagement after return. He will hear their views on the changes being brought by the Narendra Modi government in the land acquisition legislation enacted by the previous UPA government.

Gandhi had first taken up the cause of farmers when he camped in Bhatta Parsaul, a village in Greater Noida, in 2011. He had launched a padyatra against forcible acquisition of farmland, a protest that had culminated in passage of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

Sources said Gandhi accompanied by some senior Congress leaders including Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh would meet members of various farmer organisations on Saturday.