Santiniketan:
Officially just a Lok Sabha member and Congress general secretary, Rahul Gandhi gets 5,000 letters a day from people on varied issues.
The young leader, who admits it is not possible to go through all the letters, said at an interaction in Santiniketan on Tuesday that he was open to guiding those who write to him, suggesting solutions, projects and programmes for various problems.
Gandhi's comments came during a lively 75-minute question-answer session with the students of Visva-Bharati University here. The media was barred from the session.
Responding to posers from some research scholars of the university about how they should seek redressal for their problems like delays or stopping of grants when their petitions to the higher authorities do not yield any fruits, Gandhi said he got 5,000 letters a day and it was not possible for him to go through all of them.
According to a source present at the interaction, Gandhi said he could not say anything about people writing to the "prime minister, chief minister or others". That, he told the gathering, was "up to you".
"But if you feel that you have programmes, projects and solutions, then inform me. I will be with you. I will help you," Gandhi was quoted as saying.
The Congress leader Monday began a three-day visit to West Bengal to mobilize workers ahead of the assembly elections next year. This is his second visit to the state in less than a fortnight.