New Delhi, Apr 23: Congress General Secretary and Member of Parliament representing the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, Rahul Gandhi, will take his “Discover India” tour forward later this week by undertaking a four-day tour of the tribal pockets in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here that Gandhi would undertake his third "Discover India" visit from April 25 to 28, and added that the trip should be viewed as a “holistic continuity” of “some of the most unique, unprecedented, innovative, creative, special focus programmes for the tribals led by the Congress-led UPA Government since 2004.

When a senior media person asked whether Rahul Gandhi would be the only General Secretary of the party to travel around the country to interact with the underprivileged sections of society, Singhvi chose not to reply.

Rahul Gandhi launched his “Discover India” tour from Orissa on March 7 with a focus on two of his favourite themes - The Tribals Bill and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The four-day visit commenced from the poverty-stricken and underdeveloped Kalahandhi area and moved deep into the Niyamigiri Hills, where he met members of the Dongria Khand tribe in the Ejrupa village. He followed this up with a five-day visit to Karnataka, interacting with Dalits and tribals, besides socially underprivileged sections of society.

That visit from March 25 to 29 saw Rahul Gandhi barnstorming through 10 districts of Karnataka, starting from the southernmost Chamarajanagar District, which borders Tamil Nadu.

He also visited the districts of Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Dharwar, Gadag, Bagalkot, Raichur, Bangalore and Bijapur.

These trips by the Amethi MP are also being used to galvanise the youth brigade into coming out in support of the Congress party and to join it in the run-up to a series of State Assembly elections being held across the country.

The Congress also is preparing itself to go into general election mode as the year 2008 closes out in anticipation of the 2009 elections. (ANI)