Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is set to undertake a two-day visit to his parliamentary constituency of Raebareli starting Tuesday, as part of the party’s nationwide campaign opposing the Centre’s move to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin), commonly referred to as the VB-G RAM G Act. The visit is aimed at highlighting concerns around rural employment, job security and the impact of the new law on daily wage earners.
As per his programme, Rahul Gandhi will reach Raebareli from Lucknow on Tuesday and stay at the Bhuemau Guest House. During the visit, he is scheduled to travel to Rohaniya in the Unchahar assembly segment, an area considered a stronghold of the BJP. There, he will participate in an MGNREGA chaupal, a grassroots interaction designed to facilitate direct dialogue with gram panchayat representatives, rural workers and labourers who depend on employment guarantee schemes for their livelihoods.
Ahead of the closed-door chaupal, Rahul Gandhi will inaugurate the Raebareli Premier League T20 cricket tournament at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. The event is being organised by the Youth Sports Academy, and party sources indicated that he may also briefly take part in a batting session as a way to connect informally with local youth and residents.
The Raebareli visit comes just a day after Rahul Gandhi addressed party workers at a large panchayat-style meeting in Kochi. His itinerary reflects the Congress party’s renewed emphasis on grassroots engagement in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in rural regions, as it seeks to foreground issues of employment, social security and workers’ rights in the run-up to the 2027 Assembly elections.
The Congress has been consistently critical of the VB-G RAM G Act, arguing that it weakens the fundamental principles of MGNREGA. Party leaders have claimed that while the new framework speaks of providing up to 125 days of employment, it redirects focus towards sector-specific projects such as water management, rural infrastructure and climate-related initiatives. According to the Congress, this shift undermines the central role of local panchayats and dilutes the legal protections and accountability mechanisms that were integral to MGNREGA.
Rahul Gandhi’s outreach in Raebareli is expected to intensify the party’s on-ground campaign against the Narendra Modi-led government on employment-related issues. Amethi MP Kishori Lal Sharma said the programme is part of a centrally coordinated strategy, under which Congress MPs across the country have been instructed to hold similar chaupals in their respective constituencies to directly engage with beneficiaries and highlight perceived shortcomings of the new law.
The decision to hold an MGNREGA chaupal in Unchahar carries added political significance, as the area has traditionally been dominated by the BJP. The region has also witnessed recent political churn following the expulsion of Manoj Kumar Pandey, a Brahmin leader and former Samajwadi Party minister, from his party in June 2025 over allegations of cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections in favour of the BJP.
Since assuming charge as the MP from Raebareli in 2024, succeeding Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi has maintained a pattern of frequent visits to the constituency, often returning every couple of months. His earlier two-day visit in September 2025 included meetings under the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee and several local-level interactions aimed at addressing constituency-specific issues.
At the state level, the Uttar Pradesh Congress has synchronised its national campaign with a 100-day village outreach initiative. This includes organising chaupals, distributing informational pamphlets and renewing demands such as fixing a minimum daily wage of Rs 400 under MGNREGA. Party leaders believe the Raebareli visit will help place the debate over rural employment guarantees at the centre of political discourse in Uttar Pradesh, reinforcing the Congress’s effort to project jobs and social security as key priorities ahead of the next assembly polls.
