Rahul likely to meet Mandsaur violence victims' kin today

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is expected to visit Madhya Pradesh's violence-hit Mandsaur district on Thursday to meet the kin of the five personswho were killed in violence during the farmers' agitation.

Five persons were on Tuesday killed as the farmers' agitation turned violent in Mandsaur, prompting the authorities to clamp curfew in the trouble-hit area.

"Rahulji is expected to visit Mandsaur tomorrow," Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh told the media.

"Our leader wants to meet the family members of the deceased and comfort them," Jaivardhan, son of senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, said.

"The entire Congress is with Madhya Pradesh's farmers in distress. The BJP-led state government should wake up from its slumber and help the farmers in need," he said.

Neemuch Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh said Gandhi was expected to visit Mandsaur on Wednesday, but it got postponed.

"Rahul was expected to visit Mandsaur today but his plan got postponed. He was supposed to land in Neemuch, the adjoining district of Mandsaur," the SP said.

Mandsaur has been on the boil since the farmers' agitation in the district turned violent.

Farmers have been demanding loan waivers and higher minimum support prices among other agriculture benefits.

They are demanding better crop prices, among other things, "heckled" Mandsaur collector on Wednesday morning when he tried to pacify them.

Also, former MP from Mandsaur, Meenakshi Natarajan, was detained when she was on her way to meet the family members of the deceased in Mandsaur.

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Wednesday called off a cabinet briefing and a scheduled press conference here.

The press conference, slated to focus on the "successful completion" of the government's 'Swachhta Pakhwada' programme, has been "postponed due to unavoidable reasons", an official statement said.

Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu has blamed the Congress for "instigating" protesters in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur.

"It is a very sad turn of events in a state that is the most peaceful state in India. The Congress is trying to politicise farmers' problems after they failed to counter (Chief Minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan politically in the state," Naidu said on the sidelines of the function.