Manmohan Singh is my leader: Rahul

Kanker, Chhattisgarh, Apr 26 (UNI) Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ''capable and he considered him as his leader''.

''Dr Singh is a capable leader. He is my leader,'' the Amethi MP said while replying to questions at a press conference here in the final leg of his two-day visit to Chhattisgarh as part of his 'Discover India' campaign.

''Please do not call me yuvraj,'' he said when a woman journalist addressed him so.

''I feel insulted when someone calls me yuvraj. There is democracy. It is not proper to call anyone yuvraj,'' Mr Gandhi added.

He pointed out that the recent Supreme Court decision on 'Salwa Judum' -- the ongoing peoples' movement against Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bastar division -- has to be respected.

Mr Gandhi expressed concern over lack of migration tendency among Bastar division's tribals.

Interacting with the tribals of Jamawada village, 12 km from Jagdalpur, Mr Gandhi asked, ''Why are you not migrating in search of work like the rural people from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, who migrate to big cities for work.'' In reply, the tribals said they feared to venture outside as they could not speak any language except their local dialect.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad said in Raipur the BJP was ''not at all worried'' over Mr Gandhi's campaign.

Yesterday, Mr Gandhi had lunch with a tribal family in tribal-dominated Sarguja district's Lenga forest village amid tight security. He also took stock of implementation of Central schemes, especialy the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

UNI Team-AC HS HS1915