(Reopens DEL113)

The Odisha meetings are aimed at the central party leadership taking feedback from the grassroot. The sources said Rahul is also likely to meet sitting as well the ex-MPs and MLAs during the interactions to assess the ground reality in the Naveen Patnaik-ruled state. Like his earlier meeting at the AICC and the two-day exercise with PCC and CLP leaders begining tomorrow, the interactions with district and block presidents in Odisha will also take place without any formal agenda, the sources said. The exercise will later also be carried out in other states with poll-bound ones likely to get a precedence as Gandhi seeks to strengthen the party organisations in the states, where Congress is out of power. Assembly elections in nine states, including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, are scheduled this year while the Lok Sabha polls are due in 2014. Congress is out of power for several years in major states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.