New Delhi, Feb 6: Where is Rahul Gandhi? This is a frequently asked question in Congress circles as the party's heir apparent has a penchant for going off the radar.

Right now he is in Japan as part of a CII-sponsored trip. Last week he learning to paraglide near Pune.

Before that he had gone abroad on a long break for Christmas and New Year, returning only after his mother, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, was hospitalised. He had also travelled to Cuba and later New York.

Partymen are becoming nonplussed by his frequent absences. And even when he is in residence, he rarely ventures outside the safe confines of Amethi and Rae Bareli. So now his political managers have decided that Rahul must spread his wings.

Rahul is all set to embark on a nationwide mass contact programme from the third week of February, beginning from Orissa ruled by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which is not a Congress ally.

Significantly, the MP from Amethi will not just visit party strongholds, where he is assured of a good turnout, but also non-Congress ruled states such as Kerala, West Bengal, and Bihar. The programme is designed to give him exposure in different parts of the country.

Rahul is expected to hold interactive sessions with the party workers and the youth, visit college and university campuses on the way.

Though the Youth Congress has put Rahul's mass contact programme together, it will also overlap with the publicity overdrive being planned by the Congress, starting April.

The Congress is planning a series of meetings countrywide aimed at highlighting the UPA's achievements to counter the BJP's propaganda.

"As an organisation we are to blame for not propagating the achievements of the government as aggressively as we should. This campaign is an effort to correct that failing," says Digvijay Singh, convener of the AICC's publicity committee.