Pranabda to address public meeting in Rajasthan!

In an interesting development, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who is very much in the news these days would be travelling by a special plane to Udaipur, Rajsamand and Nathdwara temple in Rajasthan, accompanied by Union Road and Transport Minister C P Joshi for a one-day trip to the state on Saturday.

While the final details of the trip are being worked out, sources said that Mukherjee, accompanied by Joshi (who is looking to replace Ashok Gehlot as the state chief minister), even as the former is in contention for Presidentship would be addressing a public meeting in Rajsamand.

It is not often that Pranabda, the senior-most minister in the United Progressive Alliance government and the leader of the Lok Sabha addresses public meetings outside West Bengal.

In fact, it is a rare occasion, and the fact that he has chosen Rajasthan has taken a lot of people by surprise.

He would be inaugurating a co-operative bank as well as visiting the Sukhadia University in Udaipur. But most interesting would be his visit to the very popular Nathdwara temple which is home to Srinathji, a highly revered avatar of Krishna, with Mukesh and Anil Ambani's mother Kokilaben Ambani, who heads the trust which looks after the temple.

While Bhilwara is Joshi's Lok Sabha constituency, Nathdwara is his assembly constituency from where he contested.

After the visit, Mukerjee will fly onwards to Kolkata. The entire visit and the function at the university is being organised by the surface transport ministry, with Joshi playing host.

So far, there is no information that the chief minister would be a part of the visit or that he would be coming to Udaipur. Sources say that the State government is not involved in the details of the Mukherjee's visit to Rajasthan.

What is however very interesting is the public meeting which Mukherjee would be addressing since the last time he addressed a public meeting was during the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections where he held a rally in an area populated by Bengalis.