Just a handful of party workers celebrate Rahul's return

As Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi finally returned here on Thursday after a nearly two-month sabbatical at an undisclosed place, only a handful of party workers were seen outside his official residence celebrating his return.

Though fire crackers were burnt to welcome Rahul Gandhi, there were just four-five workers present at his 12, Tughlaq Road Lane residence to celebrate his return. No leader was noticed outside to welcome him.

Congress president and his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Vadra waited for Rahul inside the house.

The workers, dressed in white kurta pyjamas, later interacted with reporters and gave their own version of where their leader (Rahul Gandhi) had gone.

Jagdish Sharma, one of the workers, said that Rahul had not gone abroad as was being reported. "He did not go anywhere. He was in Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand), meditating there," he said.

Asked if he was briefed by somebody in the party, Sharma replied "no".

Mediapersons along with their OB vans were present in large numbers around the Gandhi residence. The vans were kept on ready mode in anticipation of any official from the party or Rahul Gandhi himself coming out to interact with them.

Gandhi is expected to meet farmers' leaders on Friday and prepare for the Kisan-Mazdoor rally to be organised here on Sunday.

Even the Congress party's head office at 24, Akbar Road, wore a deserted look with no party leader in sight there too.

Some of the mediapersons, who had gathered at the All India Congress Committee office (AICC) at Akbar Road in the hope of learning where exactly Rahul Gandhi had been all this while, were asked to vacate the regular press conference venue.

Gandhi was on a 'leave of absence' since the budget session of parliament that began on February 23. He returned on Thursday morning around 10.30 a. m.

--Indo-Asian New Service

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