Rahul Gandhi meets nursing students in Amethi, asks about their future plans

On the second day of his visit to Uttar Pradesh’s twin political bastions Amethi and Rae Bareli, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met nursing students, local residents, and party members before concluding the tour with a visit to a slain tourist’s family in Kanpur. On Wednesday, Gandhi interacted with around 400 students at the Indira Gandhi Nursing College in Amethi, including those enrolled in ANM, GNM, and BSc Nursing courses.

“How are your studies going? What’s your future plan after this?” he asked Navarshita Tripathi, a final-year student from Barabanki district.

“He stayed with us for about half an hour, spoke to students about their future plans and also clicked pictures with them,” said Anushree Srivastava, a Tutor at the college and resident of Amethi.

A day earlier, Gandhi had raised questions about employment data during the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) meeting in Rae Bareli. He objected to a list provided by local administration regarding youth employment in Rae Bareli, stating that a random verification revealed discrepancies as several individuals denied receiving jobs.

On Wednesday morning, Gandhi held a ‘Janata Samvad’ at Bhuemau guest house in Rae Bareli, where he met with party workers, lawyers, women’s organisation representatives, and local residents.

Dhananjay Gupta, a teacher recruitment candidate from Deoria, said, “We should have been teaching at schools, but for the last four years, we are protesting on the roads.” Amit Maurya, another candidate from Rae Bareli, added, “We requested Rahul Gandhi to raise our issue of 69,000 teacher recruitments in Parliament. We feel the government isn’t listening to us.”

Later, Gandhi visited the Indo Russian Rifles Private Limited in Korwa, Amethi — a joint venture facility that manufactures assault rifles. He also went to the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Munshiganj, Amethi, where he inaugurated a modular operation theatre dedicated to open-heart surgeries and flagged off a new ambulance.

Bar Association members Dhanendra Srivastava and Sushil Srivastava met Gandhi during the visit and requested support for the renovation of the association’s office. “We thanked him for his continued support,” they said, joining nearly 250 others who interacted with the Congress leader.

On his route from Rae Bareli to Amethi, Gandhi was greeted by local residents at various locations. He also met and felicitated two meritorious students — Shivam Yadav (intermediate) and Manglesh Prajapati (high school) — who secured top positions in the district. Both were gifted tablets in recognition of their performance.

After concluding the Amethi-Rae Bareli leg, Rahul left for Kanpur to meet the family of Shubham Dwivedi, a tourist from Uttar Pradesh who was killed in a terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22. Dwivedi was on a family vacation when the incident occurred.

Rahul Gandhi had represented Amethi Lok Sabha constituency for three consecutive terms — 2004, 2009, and 2014 — before losing to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019. The Congress reclaimed the seat in the 2024 general elections, with family aide KL Sharma defeating Irani, while Gandhi himself contested and won from Rae Bareli.