Bhopal, Apr 9 (IANS): A group of women collecting ‘Mahua flowers’ in a forest in Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol district on Tuesday had a surprise guest when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stopped his convoy to meet them.

Rahul Gandhi, who stayed in Shahdol on Monday night, was heading towards a helipad to leave for Delhi. On seeing the women collecting Mahua along the highway in Umaria, he stopped his convoy and met the women.

Madhya Pradesh Congress shared photographs of Rahul Gandhi with the women on social media. After a short interaction with the women, Rahul Gandhi moved on with the rest of the journey.

Congress’ top star campaigner Rahul Gandhi kick-started the party’s election campaign in Shahdol, one of the five Lok Sabha seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates.

On his first visit to Madhya Pradesh on Monday after the declaration of the Lok Sabha election schedule, Rahul Gandhi addressed three back-to-back public rallies in three different Lok Sabha seats -- Balaghat, Mandla and Shahdol.

As per the MP Congress office, he was supposed to leave for Delhi after addressing the rallies by late evening, however, the special aircraft could not take off for some reason, and he had to stay in Shahdol.

MP’s six out of 29 Lok Sabha seats -- Chhindwara, Shahdol, Balaghat, Mandla, Sidhi and Jabalpur -- will go for the poll in the first phase on April 19.