Thrust Areas

While Rahul will be meeting party workers on his tour, Sonia will address Assembly segment-wise meetings two days after that. Priyanka, however, will not make an appearance though she was a star campaigner in both constituencies.

‘‘We wanted her (Sonia) to become the PM but she herself refused the offer. But now we are elated that she has not forgotten us and is coming on a thanksgiving visit. We are hopeful of getting a number of schemes aimed at development of Rae Bareli which are lying neglected since 1984 when Indiraji was assassinated,’’ said Uma Shanker Mishra, chief of the local Congress unit.

The chairman of the Indian Telephone Industries, the biggest and the only surviving unit (on the verge of closure) in Rae Bareli, has beaten Mishra to that. He met Rahul and discussed with him a plan to make the unit viable while requests have been sent to Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav to computerise reservation counters in Lalganj, Bachrawan and Dalmau towns in the constituency.

‘‘A blueprint for the development of Rae Bareli is being prepared while many Centrally-sponsored schemes are being given a final shape. The rural areas in the constituency will get mobile connectivity soon. A fully computerised public relations office of Soniaji’s will be opened in Rae Bareli soon from where party workers can send their complaints and applications through e-mail,’’ said Kishori Lal Sharma, a Congress leader.

Besides development, the Congress leadership is also on the lookout on the law and order situation. Minister of State for Home Shriprakash Jaiswal was specially dispatched to Rae Bareli after the murder of a local Congress worker in which Akhilesh Singh, the brother of Sonia’s opponent in Lok Sabha polls, was allegedly involved.

The minister also met the Governor and expressed concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state in general and Rae Bareli in particular.