Congress president Rahul Gandhi is on a two-day visit to poll-bound Rajasthan starting today. He is said to hold a roadshow from Dholpur to Dausa. He will also be attending various events in Jaipur before addressing the ‘Sankalp Rally’ in Bikaner on Wednesday.
Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot has said that Mr. Gandhi will visit Bharatpur, Dausa and Dholpur on Tuesday. He will start his visit by addressing a public meeting in Mania. He will then visit Badi, Basedi, Bayana and Vair.
The Congress party President will be travelling over 250 km, during the road show and cover three districts which have 16 assembly seats, majority of which are with the BJP.
Congress President @RahulGandhi will be touring Rajasthan today to meet and interact with the people of Dholpur and Bharatpur pic.twitter.com/ggvLdWBijb
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 9, 2018
According to reports, the Bharatpur district administration granted permission for Gandhi’s rally and a roadshow in Bharatpur at the last moment as earlier it could not manage to get the permission from the owner of the ground and so was denied to half the roadshow by Bharatpur SDM.
A recent poll survey has predicted the Congress will go past BJP to wrest power in the state in the upcoming Assembly election.
This rally is also significant for Congress as in 2013 assembly elections the Congress party did not perform well in other parts of the state but managed to retain a hold in the Dholpur-Bharatpur belt, winning four seats. The Congress had a higher vote share of 34.5 per cent there which was more than that of the BJP in Dholpur.
The current CM of Rajasthan belongs to the erstwhile royal family of Dholpur and is popularly known as “Maharani Sahib” to voters there.
The party believes that Rahul Gandhi’s public outreach program with road show can boost the prospects of Congress in the upcoming elections. “We have a good chance in east Rajasthan. That is why Rahul Gandhi is here and we are taking on the Chief Minister not just in Dholpur but in all 200 seats,” said Rajsthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot.
Congress has also chosen this place to conduct rally as the BSP had also performed better here in the previous elections. Although, BSP has not had a vote percentage of more than 4% in previous elections, Congress seems to leave nothing to chance in the upcoming elections.
The state will conduct the polls in one phase on December 7.