Varanasi, Nov 2: Taking the district administration and local party men by surprise, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi arrived unannounced in the city on Tuesday morning.
District Magistrate Ravindra, when contacted, confirmed that the Congress MP is in the town, though he stated the district administration was not aware of his visit.
The local unit of the party was also unaware about the visit with Congress district president Anil Srivastava saying that he has come to know of the arrival this morning.
According to officials, Rahul arrived at the Babatpur airport around 10.30 AM and a cavalcade of three to four vehicles drove him to Seer Govardhan in Lanka area where he had darshan at the Ravidas Mandir before leaving for his onward journey, the details of which were not known.
Earlier too, the Congress leader had undertaken such unannounced extensive tours several times following which the Mayawati government has written to the Centre about his (Rahul's) security concerns After his visit to the Ravidas Janmasthan Temple here, Rahul visited villages in neighbouring Naxal-hit Chandauli and Mirzapur districts and interacted with people, taking stock of the development works.
In Chandauli, Rahul held a chaupal in Kurtiya village under a ‘pipal' tree and apprised villagers of the rural job guarantee scheme, MGNREGS and the Lok Pal bill. He referred to the shortage of fertiliser, power and water in the area and took feedback from the crowd.
The Congress leader told them that corruption in central schemes would be checked once the UID comes into force and that Lok Pal alone would not be able to control scams unless each and every individual did not rise to the situation.
He also met the family of four people who had died in a wall collapse incident in September last due to heavy rains in Mirzapur district.
Rahul also interacted with the common people at a chaupal at the primary school in Manikpur village under Adlahat police station area.
Meanwhile, SP Chandauli, Shalabh Mathur, when contacted, said he had no information about Rahul's visit.
