IANS/New Delhi

A day before holding the Congress’s “Kisan Khet Mazdoor” rally in the national capital, party vice president Rahul Gandhi will meet multiple delegations of farmers today, a party leader said here yesterday.
Rahul, who returned from a 56-day break on Thursday, is scheduled to meet about half a dozen groups of farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh at 10am at his residence,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
He said the meetings, originally scheduled for yesterday, were “deferred” because “we wanted to give enough travel time” to farmers coming from far and wide for the rally to be held at the city’s Ramlila Ground tomorrow.
Only Rahul Gandhi and party president Sonia Gandhi will address the farmers at the rally.
Seeking to protest against the Narendra Modi-government’s “anti-farmer and anti-poor” policies, the rally is being organised at on “mammoth” scale that would witness “a sea of humanity”, the spokesperson said.
“We will protest against the draconian land acquisition ordinance 2015 and highlight the stress caused to farmers by the damage of 200lakh hectare of land on account of unseasonal rains.”
On his first day at work after his return from a ‘leave of absence’ since February 23, the Congress vice-president took stock of things and set his office back in order, the party spokesperson added.
Meanwhile Union Minister Giriraj Singh yesterday slammed Rahul saying it is “unfortunate” that he went missing for so many days.
“Since he has come back, I hope he (Rahul Gandhi) connects with the people once again. But it is unfortunate that a leader of his stature went missing for so many days. It is equally surprising that neither his party (Congress) nor people of this country had any clue where he was,” Singh said.
“In the entire history of Indian politics, I have never come across a leader who not only went out of the country but also went missing without a trace. No one knew where he has been. Only Congress people can throw some light on it. Now he will talk about farmers (in the rally). This is not appropriate,” the Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises said in Surat.
The minister who hails from Bihar also took a dig at the merger of the erstwhile Janata Parivar parties and said that fear of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had brought them together.
“Mulayam Singh Yadav, Deve Gowda and Lalu Prasad Yadav have come together due to fear of Narendra Modi. This alliance will eventually break up after their vested interests collide with each other,” Singh said.