Rahul reaches out to small business persons

As part of outreach efforts ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met small and micro businesspersons in the national capital to understand the problems they faced in running and expanding their ventures.

In a 90-minute interaction over spicy Andhra cuisine at the Andhra Bhawan here, seven business persons ranging from a small hotel owner in Kargil to an entrepreneur manufacturing sanitary napkins flagged issues such as poor infrastructure, lack of incentives, difficulties in accessing credit during their meeting with Rahul.

The suggestions made by them during the Congress' poll outreach programme 'Apni Baat Rahul ke Saath' will form the part of the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.

“The best part about this discussion was, I feel it’s for the first time that a political leader is interested in listening to us,” said Khalid Ghulam Mohammad, who runs a hotel in Kargil.

Rahul also called Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath when Indore-based solar energy entrepreneur Sanjay Patwardhan, who was one of the participants, made a suggestion.

“When I gave him a suggestion, he immediately called the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mr. Kamalnath and made me speak to him,” Patwardhan said.

Most of the participants flagged issues about the poor implementation of the Goods and Services Tax and the monthly reporting mandated under the new indirect tax regime.

A couple of weeks ago, Rahul had hosted a group of students for dinner at a restaurant in Delhi to discuss problems they faced in their day to day lives.