Bhubaneswar, May 9: Two months after his maiden visit to Orissa, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi will embark upon a follow-up trip to the state next week.

The youth leader will be in the state on a daylong visit on May 13. “This will be a follow-up visit of Rahul,” said All India Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar, who briefed reporters here about the trip.

“During his five-day familiarisation trip in March, he had interacted with the people about the problems they were facing. Back from the trip, the AICC leader had followed up at the appropriate level to sort out the problems,” said Tanwar, who had co-ordinated the previous trip.

During his visit to Angul last time, residents and employees of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) had demanded Navaratna status for the aluminium major. Following the initiative taken by the AICC leader, the Nalco was accorded the status.

Thus, trade union leaders and local residents are apparently eager to organise a thanksgiving ceremony at Angul, which will be attended by Rahul.

However, Rahul’s stand on the demands made by Dangaria Kandha to withdraw the bauxite-mining project from Niyamgiri hills remains unclear.

“The matter has been taken up at an appropriate level,” said Tanwar.

While winding up his five-day Orissa visit last time, Rahul had told reporters: “The purpose of my tour is to reduce the distance between the politicians and the voters.”

“To me the Orissa tour was to understand people’s problems and converse with people. Such trips will continue as long as I live,” he had added.