he newly energised Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is keen on fighting for farmers who lost their lands for the construction of Andhra Pradesh's new capital city, Amaravati. However, state Congress leaders are not ready to invite him for a visit at this stage. They think that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi will not be received well by the people of AP, as they are still furious with them for splitting the state a year ago.

The Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), which still functions from Gandhi Bhawan in Hyderabad, has received an informal query from the office of Rahul Gandhi, asking whether it would be possible to organise a protest where Rahul will lead farmers. After his "padayatra" in Telangana last week, Rahul is keen on visiting Andhra too.

Senior APCC leaders said that Rahul aides asked them to organise a farmers' rally in the first week of June, at a venue within the Amaravati city limits. The city stretches 35 km between Vijayawada and Guntur. But the local office bearers were not interested. Farmers' protests have reached a crescendo in the state, as Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has fixed the auspicious time of 8.39 a.m. on 6 June to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the new capital. Already the CPM has held a massive rally to protest the land acquisition, while YSR Congress leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning a dharna on 3 and 4 June.

Several farmers' organisations and NGOs who are fighting against the land acquisition, have asked Rahul to join the stir and address a rally. Rahul is interested as it fits his current efforts to project himself as a champion of farmers' rights.

But his party leaders are not welcoming him. "It is too early to organise a programme of either Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi in Andhra, as people are still angry with us. We lost all the 175 Assembly seats we contested and lost our deposits in over 158 of them. We drew a zero even in subsequent local body elections," said former Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana.

Sources said APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy is also not eager to invite Rahul Gandhi to Amaravati. Reddy is disappointed by the lukewarm response to the PCC efforts to mobilise public signatures to demand special status for AP as per the promise made by the then UPA government in Parliament. The meetings held by Reddy and AICC leaders Jairam Ramesh and Koppula Raju to pressure the Centre to fulfil obligations under the AP bifurcation Act too evoked poor public response. In villages like Polavaram, people shouted at Congress leaders, accusing them for dividing the state.

A tiny section within the AP Congress thinks this is the right time for Rahul to tour the state, especially since social activists like Medha Patkar have visited villages where famers lost their land and Anna Hazare has extended his support to protesters whose livelihood is in danger.