Gujarat: Rahul Gandhi to take part in Cong booth level convention on Sep 5

AHMEDABAD, (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address a rally of booth-level party workers for the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat and also seek blessings of Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram here on September 5 ahead of the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’.

He will address the ‘parivartan sankalp’ convention of booth level workers at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad on September 5, the party’s Gujarat in charge Raghu Sharma told reporters.

”Gandhi will attend the programme at the riverfront, after which he will go to Sabarmati Ashram to seek the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi ahead of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which begins on September 7,” the former Rajasthan minister said. The 3,500-km long padayatra will cover 12 states and two Union Territories and will be completed in about 150 days.

The Congress has prepared a three-month long campaign for the Gujarat polls to be held later this year, with both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi taking part in programmes, he said.

The party has set a target of September 15 to release the first list of candidates, Sharma further said.

Commenting on the BJP’s ”double engine” government in Gujarat and at the Centre, Sharma said ”one engine will go out in the 2022 election and another in 2024 Lok Sabha election”.

He said there is enthusiasm in the party rank and file and exuded confidence of winning 125 seats in the 182-member Assembly.

Asserting that 52,000 Congress booth workers were fully ready for polls, Sharma brushed aside the challenge being thrown by new entrant Aam Aadmi Party.

”No matter how often Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal comes to Gujarat, the contest will remain between BJP and Congress. AAP will be gone from Gujarat after the Assembly elections, just like it went from Goa, Uttarakhand and Bengal post polls,” he claimed.

State Congress president Jagdish Thakor said the party has worked to strengthen its grassroots cadre after the ‘navsankalp shivir’ held in Udaipur in Rajasthan, adding that ”booth warriors” will play an important part in the run up to the polls.

”Booth yoddhas or booth warriors will identify duplicate voters, wrong names in the electoral roll and ensure timely availability of necessary literature and information on party ideology and party candidates. It is their duty to ensure people believe in the Congress as much as possible,” Thakor said. (PTI)