Nearly 1,000 women who earn livelihood by dancing and singing at private parties Thursday met Congress MP Rahul Gandhi [Images], in the midst of electioneering for his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi [Images], and demanded opening of dance bars here or some other jobs for them.

The women voters at Semarthaha village in Dalmau assembly consituency told Rahul, who visited their village for campaigning, that they had been rendered unemployed after the closure of dance bars in Mumbai.

The women said there was no scope for traditional dancing and singing any more and with the closure of dance bars in Mumbai, where many of them were employed, they had been left with no work.

They demanded the opening of dance bars in Rae Bareli and Amethi, Rahul's Lok Sabha constituency, or arrange some alternative employment for them.