The Congress has started efforts to ensure that party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi’s Dehradun visit is a resounding success. The party workers state that all efforts will be made to ensure that the crowd attending Rahul Gandhi’s rally, to be held here on February 22 on the Parade Ground, is bigger than the crowd which attended BJP prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s rally held here in December last year.
As part of these efforts, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief and Cabinet Minister Yashpal Arya flagged off four publicity vehicles from the Congress State head office at Rajeev Bhawan on Tuesday.
Arya said that a large number of people would be arriving in Dehradun to hear Rahul Gandhi. The publicity vehicles would help disseminate information about the programme across the State. Congress State spokesman Dhirendra Pratap said that February 22 would prove to be a ‘historical day’. He exhorted the party workers to make all possible efforts to make the occasion the first of its kind and historical in order to give a befitting reply to ‘communal forces’ confronting the nation.
According to sources, the recent approval accorded by the Union Government to “one rank, one pension” is expected to raise the enthusiasm among the ex-servicemen in Uttarakhand and increase their presence at Rahul Gandhi’s rally. The ex-servicemen cell of the Congress is working to capitalise on this development to elicit support for the party.