Rahul to return to action on April 19: Digvijaya

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is likely to attend a farmers' rally here on April 19, senior party leader Digvijaya Singh said on Monday.

To be addressed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the rally to protest the Bharatiya Janata Party's failure to implement its poll promises will be "attended by all senior leaders of the Congress...When I say senior leaders, it includes Rahul Gandhi as well," Digvijaya Singh told IANS.

Missing from action for over a month, the 44-year-old vice president has been on a "leave of absence' since the budget session of parliament that began on February 23.

The party contended Gandhi's absence premised on his need to chart out party's future course in "isolation".

While posters emerged in Amethi declaring that the local MP (Rahul Gandhi) was "missing", Sonia Gandhi assured the constituents of her son's return "very soon".

Digvijaya Singh told IANS that the rally will raise issues of "land acquisition bill, non-purchase of paddy and wheat at minimum support price by the government), non-payment of bonus to farmers, black marketing of fertilizers and non-payment of compensation to farmers for the crop damage caused by unseasonable rainfall and hailstorm".