New Delhi: The Congress is deploying its star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on April 13 to swing BJP-ruled Uttarakhand while former party chief Rahul Gandhi will address rallies in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu over the next two days.
“Priyanka Gandhi will address two rallies in the state on April 13, Ramnagar which falls in Garhwal seat and Roorkee which comes under Haridwar seat,” AICC general secretary in charge of Uttarakhand Kumari Selja told ETV Bharat.
“The Congress has put up strong candidates and will do much better than the previous election. The people are fed with the BJP,” she said.
The Congress could not win even a single seat in Uttarakhand in 2019 and is fighting the 2024 polls with all its might. All the five Lok Sabha seats in the hill state will go to polls in Phase 1 on April 19.
Garhwal candidate Ganesh Godiyal is a former state unit chief and a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee while Haridwar candidate Virendra Rawat is the son of former chief minister Harish Rawat who is a permanent invitee to the CWC. Senior leaders Jot Singh Gunsal is contesting from Tehri Garhwal seat, Pradeep Tamta from Almora reserved seat and former AICC functionary Prakash Joshi from Nainital Udham Singh Nagar seat.
As Congress leader Virendra Rawat is pitted against former BJP chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat in Haridwar, the seat has become a prestige issue for ex chief minister Harish Rawat who has hit the streets to seek votes for his son despite health issues.
“We are going to win this election as our workers have developed a hunger for power. The key issue in these elections is how to save the Constitution. The BJP wants to have its own Constitution as they don’t like the views of Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh. Joblessness and high prices of essential items is also a big concern among the voters,” Harish Rawat told ETV Bharat.
As Priyanka prepares for Uttarakhand, former party chief Rahul Gandhi will address two rallies in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur and Bikaner seats on April 11 and will hold a joint rally with DMK leader and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin in Coimbatore on April 12.
The Congress has fielded Karan Singh Uchiyarda from Jodhpur to counter BJP leader and union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat who had won the seat in 2014 and 2019 polls. In Bikaner seat, Congress heavyweight Govind Ram Meghwal is pitted against BJP union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
The Congress managers hope Rahul’s rallies in the two important seats will boost the party’s prospects.
While the Congress is majorly on its own in Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, all eyes are on Coimbatore where INDIA bloc leaders Rahul Gandhi and MK Stalin will come together to counter the AIADMK as well as the BJP, which is trying to get a foothold in the southern state.
DMK’s Ganapathy Rajkumar is pitted against BJP state unit chief K Annamalai and AIADMK’s Singai Ramachandran.
“The first joint INDIA bloc rally in Coimbatore will send a strong message of the alliance against the divisive forces. The alliance will sweep the polls,” AICC secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu Sirivella Prasad told ETV Bharat.
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