Keeping in mind that women comprise 49 per cent of the total electorate, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will address his first women-only rally at Tumkur in Karnataka on Sunday.

The idea originated from Rahul's views about the need to empower women and a realisation that this segment of electorate needed special focus ahead of the general elections likely in April-May, Congress sources said. More such rallies will be planned in Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the coming weeks, they added.

Another reason for holding such rallies emanated from the fact that the high attendance of men often made women reluctant to attend the events, especially in rural areas. "Even in a big public rally, the count of women never goes beyond a few thousands. They generally avoid attending election rallies," a senior Congress leader said.

Rahul has been advocating the need to empower women by giving them more roles in the party and tickets in the elections. The Gandhi scion had highlighted the need to empower women at the Congress sessions in Jaipur on January 2013, and again in Delhi on January 17 this year.

The Congress vice-president had recently held a session with women in Bhopal to get their views about the party's manifesto for the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday backed the long-standing 'One-Rank, One-Pension' demand of ex-servicemen, assuring them that he will make all efforts to ensure it is met at the earliest.

"I am on your side. I understand your concerns. You give your life for the country, I will do all that I can to make sure that your demands are met," Rahul told a gathering of 1,000 former servicemen from Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab during an interaction in the Capital.

