Cong denies reports of Rahul meeting bar girls

Lucknow, Apr 28 : Congress leaders today denied the reports appearing in a section of the media that Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi met a delegation of bar girls in Rae Bareli while campaigning for his mother and AICC President Sonia Gandhi.

UP Congress said the young MP had neither visited the area where the bar girls lived nor did any delegation meet him yesterday.

''While the report said 1000 bar girls had met him demanding opening of bars in Rae Bareli and Amethi, there are only a few of them living in the area...there was no interaction with them whatsoever and the reports in this regard are fabricated,'' UP Congress chief spokesperson A P Singh said, adding ''the party is shocked over the reports.'' The report had claimed that the bar girls demanded either new job opportunities or opening up of bars in Amethi and Rae Bareli as their source of income -- dance bars in Mumbai -- had closed down.

Rahul visited village Samarpaha in the Dalmau assembly segment last evening for electioneering some women, who were earlier working as bar girls in Mumbai, live on the eastern flank (purva) of the village. ''...but certainly, there was no assurance from the Congress MP with regards to opening of dance bars in his mother's constituency,'' the spokesman asserted.

UNI