Sonia, Rahul take bus ride to Surajkund for party meet

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, did not take the bus to the picnic town in Haryana, about 25 km from the heart of the Capital, due to security reasons.

Sonia Gandhi, the Congrress President, and Rahul Gandhi, who has been billed as number two in the party, travelled in the same bus occupying the front seats taking the 'aam aadmi' ride seeking to send a message of auserity.

Union Ministers including A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and C P Joshi and senior party leaders Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni were in the same bus taken by the Gandhis.

Security vehicles, some with jammers, were part of the VVIP convoy.

The Congress has utilised bus rides by local leaders as part of strategy to project a picture of unity and to connect with the common man during state Assembly elections in the past.

Party sources said that the dialogue meeting (Samvad Baithak) will virtually set the agenda for the larger brainstorming at Chintan Shivir, which is likely to be organised in January next year.

The dialogue session came after the public meeting here on November 4, which saw Sonia and Rahul strongly backing the economic reform measures initiated by the Prime Minister.

The session broadly discussed three topics---present political situation, economic challenges and status of implementation of 2009 party manifesto.