Lucknow: Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates will join Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on a visit to Amethi, in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. The visit was kept a closely guarded secret until late on Monday evening, party sources said. Even top state Congress leaders were unaware of the move, as Gandhi had intended it to be a completely quiet affair, away from media gaze.

However, it is learnt that Gandhi proposes to take Gates to the same village where he spent a night along with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a ramshackle hut belonging to a poor Dalit. The Congress leader is also understood to have arranged an interaction between Gates and women self-help groups formed by him in his constituency. They propose to take a chartered flight from New Delhi to Fursatganj from where they would drive down to Amethi around 10 am.