Rahul Gandhi may spend night in Dalit home again

JHANSI - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is likely to spend yet another night in a Dalit’s home in Jhansi district, party sources said Monday.

The Congress MP, who is scheduled to arrive here later Monday by a chartered plane, will go straight to Ghisauli village, barely 10 km from this city in the backward Bundelkhand region, the sources said.

He is to attend a programme organised by a local NGO engaged in welfare and economic upliftment of Dalits in the area.

Details of his programme were being kept secret “for security reasons”, the source added. However, it is learnt that he would spend the night in a Dalit home in a particular village of the area.

Rahul’s visit is significant as it is his first after he pushed a special development package of Rs.7,000 crore for the Bundelkhand region.

But what is equally significant is that the trip coincides with the commencement of the first major movement for the long-pending demand for statehood to Bundelkhand.

Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha chief Raja Bundela had Dec 16 launched a 300-km march to press for the people’s demand for an independent state of Bundelkhand.